You’re invited to Strand’s to dance the winter blues away.
As part of the Willie Dixon God Damn! tour, psychedelic blues-folk rocker Bocephus King will be performing at Strand’s in Invermere with his band this Saturday (February 2).
“Willie Dixon God Damn! is about a series of things,” said Jamie Perry, who goes by the stage name Bocephus King, also the name of his band. “It’s like Hallelujah.”
Perry spoke with The Echo from Black Diamond, during the Alberta stretch of the band’s western Canadian tour.
After a gap of more than six years between releasing albums, “everything’s different” for Bocephus King.
“The last album I toured was so many years before,” he said.
During his hiatus, Perry became a father and told The Echo that he didn’t want to rush his work.
“I didn’t want to make a record just to make a record,” he said. “I waited for the songs and I dealt with a lot of stuff in my life that I hadn’t really dealt with up until that point — I was a dad.”
While several folk musicians influence Bocephus King, he said his greatest inspiration comes from movies.
However his latest album,Willie Dixon God Damn!, is about the Grammy-award winning blues musician who overcame great adversity.
“The tunes are sort of talking about the spirit, if you will, of Willie Dixon and all of his accomplishments during his time,” said Perry. “He was touring around, a black man in southern United States, at a pretty crazy time but he still managed to do so much so I figure he’s this really brave, interesting guy who came from really strange times.”
Willie Dixon is most famous for his work as a blues musician and record producer in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Some of his music reverberated through Led Zeppelin, who settled out-of-court after Dixon claimed his song You Need Love (1962) was plagiarized though Led Zeppelin’s first hit single, Whole Lotta Love.
Perry guarantees fans will have a lot of fun and can expect to hear the band improvise between songs. Saturday’s show won’t offer a definitive sound, he said, rather a “blues… psychedelic folk show,” which by the end of the night will become “a hootenanny of a dance party.”
“Stick with [Bocephus King],” his website states, “and he takes you on an evocative trip down strange memory lane, pouring out his heart like a bottle.”
Bocephus King has a European tour on its horizon with Italy, Holland and Belgium in mind, and has recorded a new album entirely composed of cover songs which King said is nearly complete.
The show is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at the door. Strand’s Old House Restaurant in Invermere can be contacted at 250-342-6344.