Driving rain at Levitt Pavilion: Black Joe Louis

The Levitt Pavilion delayed Black Joe Louis’s show multiple times due to lightning strikes in the area.The lightning moved on, but the pouring rain stayed. 

For the band, rain didn’t factor into their performance. When he and the Honeybears hit the stage, their blistering performance wiped away any impact from the weather. 

The rain ranged from a mist to a downpour, but several hundred hardy souls stayed to listen. The small crowd did not let the rain squash its enthusiasm. At every step, the trio sounded electric. 

His driving opener, Some Conversations You Just Don’t Need to Have, dropped a heavy blues boogie that set the tone for the rest of the night. 

 Louis plays a worn Fender Telecaster, the guitar that started his music career when he bought it in an Austin pawn shop where he worked. 

Often a guitar associated with country music, he rung a unique sound from the instrument, a 21st century journey through the 12-bar blues. I admit to not knowing much about Louis before the show, but I left an admirer. He’s a relentless tourer, so I won’t wait long for a chance to hear him again. 

Louis takes his performing name from the song Old Black Joe from 19th century songwriter Stephen Foster, who wrote songs of the antebellum South that often ended up in blackface minstrel shows. 

Electric blues is not a genre where I delve too deeply, but Louis’ music goes so much further than that. Along with Howlin’ Wolf, James Brown, Son House, and other influences pop out – it was hard not to hear shades of Bad Brains’ guitarist H.R. on some of the punkier songs in the set. He was a teen in the 1990s, so the melting pot of music from that decade also received an occasional flash. 

Those blue riffs echoed in the rain on Ruby Hill, and no one who stuck it out seemed to mind the weather. All the while, the warmth in Black Joe Louis’ playing shone through.