Event Sponsored by Northeast Community Credit Union
Victor Lawson and Boogie Chillen- Established about eight years ago and led by Lawson, the tight three-man band take their name from the song, “Boogie Chillen,’” which was made famous by late Delta blues icon, John Lee Hooker. “We play a lot of blues,” said Lawson, befitting his band’s name. “But at a lot of the places we play we have to play classic rock and country, too, so people can dance.” Despite his love of original music, Lawson allows that he and Boogie Chillen may summon no more than a trio of originals during any given performance. “We do one called ‘Hammer,’ which is a blues-based rock song,” Lawson said. “We have one called ‘Back to Alabama,’ which I play with a slide guitar. Mostly, wherever we play, we’re expected to play covers, but every now and then we’ll throw an original into the show.” Now, Lawson certainly neither qualifies nor touts himself as a long-suffering Delta blues musician a la John Lee Hooker or Robert Johnson. He’s an art teacher at Richlands Middle School. However, he plays a wicked Fender Stratocaster, with which he rocks from a base forged in the blues. Include him more within the school of blues in terms of style that yielded Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jonny Lang than Muddy Waters and Elmore James. “It’s definitely more of a blues-based sound,” Lawson said. “Even when we play classic rock or country, you’ll hear that blues influence. One of my favorites was Stevie Ray Vaughan, but I love the old guys like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, too.” Fittingly, Lawson and Boogie Chillen band mates Don Armstrong (bass) and Andrew Brown (drums) are apt to summon such blues staples as the Willie Dixon-written, Muddy Waters-performed “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Listen for Elmore James’ “Shake Your Moneymaker” alongside Vaughan’s “Texas Flood” and “Pride and Joy.” “We do quite a bit of ZZ Top and Jimi Hendrix,” Lawson said. “I like to do things that nobody else does.” As such, Lawson prefers to apply his own stamp upon tunes obscure and otherwise. “We kind of make them our own,” Lawson said. “I never really play anything exactly like the records. Then I never play it the same way twice. We just take the music and go with it.”