The road to 4th St.

The formation of Booze Monkey was announced (originally in Babble-on) after a failed attempt at reviving Blue's backing band, the Jaded. Blue had just released his eigth solo album, Something Borrowed Something and was looking to support it with live performances. Despite an excellent line-up of musicians, the chemistry just wasn't there, and the band didn't work out.

From the ashes came the Monkey.

It was May of 2002 (22 May 2002 for the original announcement). Back in "the day" when BLUE & the JADED were performing regularly, Blue and Joel Ludwig would perform acousticly as a duo with Blue handling the guitar and vocals while Joel played acoustic bass. Joel was a member of the JADED from its 2nd generation right on through its failed revival at gen 5. With this history in mind and familiarity in heart the two decided that they would dispense with the full band and work as a duo. The Monkey was born.

Based upon an idea that had been cookin' in Blue's brain for a number of years he designed and built his homemade "StompBox". This weird and wonderful little device consists of a microphone and a pre-amp built into an Anvil briefcase. Blue stomps his foot on it while performing acousticly. It provides a percussion element that resides somewhere between the sound of a bass drum and a back porch. As if that weren't enough, it also holds its own cables. A scan through the SanityCheck.net Gallery will surely provide a glimpse.

Blue re-arranged a selection of songs from his lengthy catalogue so that they consisted of only 1 guitar (Blue would switch between a standard 6-string acoustic guitar and a resophonic guitar that he plays with a brass slide), the StompBox, acoustic guitar (Joel started with an acoustic fretless Godin and later learned to play upright/double-bass) and one singing voice. They worked up an entertaining show that combined components from diverse musical influences into a package that was both fresh and familiar. With a deep respect for both the music and their audience the show was above all, entertaining.

With songs from throughout Blue's catalogue and an ever increasing list of new ones the two were in the studio very soon after announcing the new band. On 18 March 2003, a mere 10 months after announcing the band, "Good Luck Mr. Gorsky", the band's debut studio CD, was in stores. "Gorsky" is a sixteen song record that was, for the most part, recorded live in the studio. If the sixteen songs weren't worth it, the drink recipes in the CD fold-out certainly were.

The band played anywhere they could in about a 2 hour radius of their home base in Winchester, VA. They also played showcases and the like in Indianapolis Indiana and Harrisburg, PA among others. They performed regularly at regional benefits and charity functions as well as the club circuit. Ultimately they ended up witha four and a half hour long show with only a small handful of cover tunes (primarily classic blues tunes).

With so much of the band's focus being live performance, it should be no surprise that they released a number of live recordings. The first was actually a "bootleg". A lengthy performance recorded live at Goodfellas in Hampton, VA on 3 July 2003. It was lovingly entitled Run Linux Run! after their friend Linux-Kidd and a moment reminiscent of "Forest Gump". Run Linux Run! (RLR!) was never "officially" released but can usually be found online with minimal effort.

The next release was a shorter "e.p." entitled, Savannah Colors. It was recorded live at the Hungry Dog Cafe in Strasburg, VA on 8 August 2003 and released on 31 December 2003. Unlike "Gorsky" it wasn't given a full distribution run, it was only available from the SanityCheck.net Online store, CDBaby.com and Booze Monkey (BMo) live shows. Savannah Colors contains 6 tracks.

On 25 September 2004 Booze Monkey performed two shows. The first, during the day, was a regional benefit. The show took place at Coalie Harry's in Winchester, VA (dubbed by, Blue, Funchester). The show was the first ever to feature a drummer, a guest appearance by area drummer Allen Lind. Joel and Blue were also joined by Ricky Wilkins on keyboards and Lee Blanton on Mississippi Saxophone (harmonica). All three musicians are extraordinary. That evening Booze Monkey played at their home-base-venue in Funchester, The Old Town Grill and Bar. The joint was packed with area musicians who had been in town for the benefit. Joel and Blue played a set as the traditional BMo duo after a handful of solo artists had performed. Then the night was capped by a trio performance featuring Allen Lind, again on drums. This night also featured the release of the third "official" Booze Monkey CD, Sippin' Pretty which had been recorded in that very same venue earlier that year. Like Savannah Colors, Sippin' Pretty was only given limited distribution through the SanityCheck.net Online store, CDBaby.com and Booze Monkey (BMo) live shows.

By this time the band was more than a little tired. They had been working most weekends since the band's formation in 2002 and they had released four albums during that same time. The stress and the fatigue was catching up to them and they scheduled their first break with plans to return to the studio after the first of the year 2005. During the band's reign of terror they had assembled a great deal of material (all of which had been "road tested"). At that time they planned to record two more albums in the "Gorsky-vein" before "throwing out the rulebook". That is - they were going to record they were going to document their now well-defined duo-style (and their growth as musicians after so many live performances) before moving on to a more traditional rock-band-arrangement for forthcoming efforts.

During the break, however, Joel decided to move on and prior soundtrack commitments caught up with Blue. Consequently Blue took a year and a half off from his rock and roll (and BMo) endeavors to compose and record a quasi-orchestral film score entitled South Mountain Magic

South Mountain Magic was a huge endeavor (especially for an indie who records in his basement) featuring over 200 tracks and ultimately mixed in surround sound for the DVD. Blue actually transported his live recording rig to Maryland to record a live choir for one segment of the score. Due to business obligations related to Hurricane Katrina, Blue missed the premier party for the movie, but it aired on television regularly for a number of months.

Once Blue returned to the studio to work on the next Booze Monkey (there was never any question about maintaining the BMo name as was discussed during the band's original formation) he found that he had a very large body of unrecorded BMo material. More pointedly he found that he had a backlog of what he considered to be some of the best songs of his career.

After recording a number of demos and performing some perfunctory microphone tests he decided to throw out the aforementioned rule-book and record the songs with his entire (more than a little squirrelly) musical history in mind. Now you can hear what goes on inside his head while he is playing a single instrument. Clicking the download link on the left side of this page will give you access to eight freely downloadable songs.