Junkyard Jane at the 2000 Waterfront
Blues Festival
CBA Music Review: Swampabilly Snake Oil Freakshow
Article Reprint from the November 2000 BluesNotes
Article by Jackson Lee
I first saw Junkyard Jane at the Waterfront Blues Festival this past July and was blown away by all the energy which came from the stage that afternoon. Later, as Chairman of the Journey To Memphis Committee, I got an application from them for the CBA Battle Of The Bands competition. Then, upon seeing them at the CBA summer picnic, I knew that this was a band that I had to know more about. So, when Junkyard Jane won the CBA`s Journey To Memphis competition last month, I knew I would have an opportunity to talk to them soon. One rainy Saturday (September 30th) I grabbed my son and off to Federal Way, Washington we went. Junkyard Jane had a gig at Jake's Ales on 336th Ave., and I got my opportunity to interview them while I was there. As the band members started to arrive they informed me that the drummer, Darin Watkins may be a little late due to the fact he had all his family in town and he was to be married the next day (on behalf of all of us at the CBA, "congrats" to Darin and Jamaine. Best wishes and many beautiful babies).
I thought about how I was going to present my interview with Junkyard Jane and thought that "in their own words" would be best.
So here's the interview, but first, a short bio on the band from their internet website as a way of introducing
Junkyard Jane.
Junkyard Jane - Genuine Swampabilly Blues (bio courtesy of their internet website) This five-headed lovechild was raised in the tide flats of Tacoma, Wash., from a mixture of swampy Blues, Rockabilly, Funk, Country and R&B. They (it?) call their unique brand of music "Swampabilly Blues" and were voted Washington's "Best Band" at the 2000 B.B. Awards.
Junkyard Jane's new release, "Milkin' The Frog" (voted "Best NW Recording" by the Washington Blues Society in 2000) and the debut CD, "Washboard Highway" (nominated for "Best NW Recording" by the Washington Blues Society in 1999), both feature all original material that reflects the diverse musical backgrounds of the band members.
Guitarist / songwriter Billy Stoops. B.B. Award recipient for "Entertainer of the Year 2000", delights and amuses audiences with his rich, soulful voice and onstage antics, while vocalist / percussionist / songwriter, Leanne Trevalyan adds both heat and whimsy to the group with her smooth and sultry vocal stylings, washboard scratchin', and occasional kazoo solo.
Energetic trombonist, Randy Oxford, (there's a reason he changes his shirt three times a night), who has four B.B. Awards for "Best Horn Player" to his credit, spices up the sound with his wild 'bone playing and engaging stage presence. And finally, the "red beans and rice" rhythm section of bassist, Barbra Blue (love that big bottom end!) and drummer, Darin Watkins, keeps poundin' down the groove so your butts can move!
The greasy, groovin' nuts and bolts roots of Junkyard Jane combine with the factor of fun to make the band's live performance "must see" musical gumbo.
The Interview
BN:
(BluesNotes) Where are you from originally, Randy?
RO: (Randy Oxford) Chicago.
DM: (Doug
Mackie, Soundman) Billy Stoop, Kentucky.
BS: (Billy
Stoops) Doug Mackie, Mars.
All laugh.
LT: (Leanne Trevalyan) Baltimore
BB: (Barbara Blue) I don't know where I'm from. I was born in Maine and raised in Indiana.
DW: (Darin Watkins) Whidby Island, Washington
BN: So, what brought you all to Tacoma and got you into a band like Junkyard Jane?
BB: My dad retired from the Air Force and bought property out here. I've been here since 1980, and I just hated moving. That is how I ended up here.
BN: You met all these people here?
BB: I met Leanne first. I played in a band with her, five or six years ago, Cobalt Hook. The rest of the band just fell together.
LT: Back to the Tacoma thing. I was living in Seattle and in Cobalt Hook. Barb was the only one living in Tacoma. So, we all said, "Barb, move to Seattle. Why would anyone want to live in Tacoma?" I moved to Tacoma two years ago and now I'm saying, "why would anyone want to live in Seattle".
DM:
I would like to clarify that I'm not from Mars. I'm from one of its satellite moon's,
Povose.
BN: HA, HA thank you. This guy has read too much Heimlein.
BS: Part of the thing with Tacoma is that it has always been very supportive of me musically. I didn't live in Tacoma, I lived in Federal Way when I first got into the music scene up here, but Tacoma was always very supportive... Randy was living in Puyallup and Barbara in Tacoma. It would have been better to have proximity and it was time to get out of the Seattle area for me. I've always liked Tacoma. Seattle has a really good music scene, but Tacoma has a really good music community. That is where we wanted to be based out of and that's what happened. It is a community, a family, and everyone is so supportive of each other in this community. That's why we are in Tacoma and proud to say we are from Tacoma.
LT: Proud baby!
BN: It sounds a lot like Portland. We have a good strong music community there.
BS: Exactly, that's it exactly!
BN: How long have you been together?
BS: Three years.
BN: With two CDs?
BS: Yes.
BN: Who has influenced you all? I hear a lot of Louis Jordan. Is he one of them?
LT: Part of our sound is that we have five different people with five different tastes and different backgrounds musically and it just came out with the sound we have. A lot of people think we are from the South or New Orleans and we are from the Northwest. That shocks some people.
BN: There is a strong southern sound.
BS: I'm a southern boy basically. I have a strong influence of southern music, but more from Soul music and I've always been influenced by the New Orleans kind of grooves, R&B and a lot Texas. I'm not sure exactly how I got all that growing up in Louisville, but somewhere I picked it up. That is where my stuff comes from.
RO: Even though I play trombone, a lot of my influence came from Rock & Roll in the '70s, and guitars players. I've been more influenced by guitar driven bands than not. Maybe that's why I play the trombone the way I do. It comes from a Rock background. I've just recently got into the Blues in the last 10 years or so.
BN: Darin?
DW: Basically listening to Led Zeppelin!
BN: That simple.
DW: Ya, that simple.
BB: Same as Randy, Rock & Roll and Zeppelin. In the '70s, I really got into Funk and Soul. I didn't even know about Blues music until I met Leanne and started playing in Cobalt Hook and learned a lot.
BN: Billy, you were on a Board (of Directors) back in Louisville. Is that right?
BS: No. I was five years in Wichita, Kansas before I came here. I was on the Board of the Wichita Blues Society for two years.
BN: Do you see any difference from the Blues there and the Blues here in the Northwest?
BS:
You know there is no real big difference. Wichita has a real great Blues scene. Before that I was more highly involved in the R&B scene and Roots orientated stuff.
Then in Wichita I got real connected to the Blues scene because they had this huge Blues thing going on.
Geographically, it was a pass through point for all the bands coming up from Austin and Texas and out of Chicago to Kansas City, on to Wichita and the West Coast bands come through too.
It was in Wichita that I first heard Lloyd Jones. We all went out and got his CD. Everyone made a big deal out of it. It's a great name, Lloyd "Have Mercy " Jones. We all thought that was the coolest thing going. Every Blues person out there passes through Wichita. It was an amazing scene. I got to make a lot of contacts and do a lot of shows with a lot of people. It was real instrumental in me getting more involved in the Blues genre music.
By being in the Blues Society I have a pretty broad scene of the genre and I definitely push the envelope on that. We were a Blues Society, but we did shows for Jeff Healy and The Red-Hot Chile Peppers. That's how far we would step because it would bring an element of music that worked. So, in Wichita, the scene was pretty broad. You had every kind of Blues coming through there. It was real open to music at the time. They were into Rock & Roll. Where did that Rock & Roll come from? It came from Blues. I don't see that there is a whole lot of difference really; geographically in the Blues.
BN: Randy, we would like to know about your horn. You did answer it somewhat with your influences coming from Rock & Roll and that is why you play, for the lack of a better word, so aggressively. Any other reason?
RO: Part of it is being in this kind of band and the fun it allows me and the freedom to play the way I want. I've been in bands in the past that were somewhat limited in their style which limited my playing. Being in a band like Junkyard Jane, where we cover a lot of different styles, grooves and feels, it allows me to really let loose at times.
BN: Why did you not go into Jazz? You don't see a lot of trombones in Blues.
RO: I have played Jazz in the past, but it has never reached me like Blues. Maybe because I grew up in Chicago and was around it a lot. As Billy said, "Rock came from the Blues", and Rock & Roll inspired me. I never was into the hard core Jazz, although I've done a lot of Big Band music in the past. It is not my forte.
BN: Darin, being the youngest member of the band, young people see you and probably except you to be in a Rock band, even more so since you are from the Seattle area. What brought you into something like this?
DW: Well, I had grown up going to jam nights playing with people older than myself because of where I grew up was a really small island and not many musicians my age at all. So, I've always been into this kind of music.
BN: So, being around the older musicians just taught you more.
DW: Ya, ya.
BN: We are getting a little feed back that you are not a Blues band. Anything you want to say about that? (000,s and laughter from the band.)
LT: That controversy started a few years ago. We have heard it from both sides. We have the elements of Blues and we stray other ways too. We just write the music we write and it comes out the way it comes out. We have our sound, that is Junkyard Jane that is Blues based. Billy brings the Country, Barb the Funk and I bring the Folk into it. Darin brings the Rock element and Randy brings a little Jazz & Rock. So, it comes out the way it comes out. Most of our success, all our success, is pretty much in the Blues community and we are proud of it.
BB: We are not a traditional Blues band. Like Leanne said, "it is an element." Starts from this and goes to...
BS: The band started in Blues. That's where our roots are. We were all in Blues bands when we started and that's what we set out to do. To put together a band, not so much genre-specific, but definitely we do draw on our Blues roots and everything else we've got. It is about music and that is the thing. If you like Blues, you are going to see enough there that it's going to make it Blues. It also opens up a lot of different things to entertain people and that is our objective. We are glad we can do that as a Blues band and be a rep of the Blues community. Not so much the poster child for Blues, but at the same time we are trying to support Blues music as much as anybody. We are getting a little more of a voice right now and we appreciate that.
LT:
We tried to come up with something to explain our music. People ask, "what do you do?" We are not really Blues, but we have that. We are not really Country, but we have that too. So, we came up with this
Swamp-a-Billy Blues thing, 'cause people need to have something to call you.
BN: That is so true.
LT: You got to have something. So we have the sappy New Orleans influence along with a little Rockabilly and the Blues is definitely there too.
BN: Your popularity has soared in Portland. How does that feel to have that two-city thing going? You can pretty much walk into any club in either area now, can't you?
LT: It feels great.
BS: I'll say! I appreciate you putting it that way, but I don't think we can walk into any club. We have a way to go there. We do appreciate the popularity and the fact that we've got acceptance in the Portland music scene, because personally, I've always been impressed with the Portland music scene and the community down there and the way things are done. It is an honor to have that support in another area. It means a lot to us and we don't take it for granted. We are very lucky we to have the success we are having.
LT: There is the unspoken thing about Portland, not being as receptive to bands from Seattle and my feeling is, this may sound really corny but music knows no boundary. I would like to see more Portland bands up here.
BN: What brought you all to the Journey to Memphis. How did you hear about that?
BS: I believe it was Susan Stewart.
LT: Ya, Susan Stewart at the Waterfront.
BS: Ya it was the Waterfront (Blues Festival). They said that you guys should enter for the Memphis thing. We were like, I don't know. It's for the CBA. It is kind of an important thing and are we eligible? Once we realized that it was open to everyone, then we were very surprised. We just decided we're not afraid of anything. It sounded like a good opportunity and what made it a good opportunity was the CBA was doing it, that it was a legitimate thing and the CBA is a class organization. I'll say it over and over again, and I don't mind saying it to anybody, and I mean it when I say it, there's a reason the CBA is one of the largest Blues Societies in the country. It's a 'class' operation and is run right. Other Blues Societies can learn from what you do.
LT: The thing that I think sparked us about the Memphis thing when, we found out about it is that people do ask us all the time, are you from New Orleans, are you from Louisiana? We've been talking about getting to this region of the country. So, when this came up, yea, here's our chance to make a splash in a part of the country where people think our music will go over really well.
BN: So, that's what you all expected to get out of the competition, to make a splash?
LT: We just wanted to get to Memphis. We're confident in what we do, but to be honest, if you could have seen the expressions on our faces, when you read, "from Tacoma Junkyard Jane." We were not expecting it. We were honored and blown away.
BN:
What are you looking to get out of Memphis?
BB: Whether we win or lose doesn't matter. It's going to be great exposure for the band. People are going to see us.
BN: What's it mean to go to Memphis? It's not just the exposure is it?
BB: Graceland!
BS: One of the things I'll say real quickly, we'll get to perform in Memphis on Beale Street. And, even to walk down Beale Street, that's something not everyone gets to do. And, that to me, is everything.
RO: To me, it's an opportunity to show a different part of the country exactly what we're doing musically. I feel like we need to be heard in different parts of the country. I think it will lead to bigger and better things for us.
BN: Well, there is the interview with Junkyard Jane. I myself had a great time talking with the entire band before, during, and after the interview. This is a band that knows how to enjoy themselves. Each of them struck me as having their hearts in the right place. I wish them all the luck in all they do and nothing but successes in Memphis.
If you would like to book, or learn more, or just say hi, you can reach them at http://www.junkyardjane.com/ or e-mail at: junkyardjane@yahoo.com.
All photos (except for the top photo) on this page were taken by the CBA Webmaster at the 2000 Waterfront Blues Festival.
© 2000 Cascade Blues Association