Eric Stanglin and The Juke Joint Heroes.

The vaulted basement of Prague's Ungelt Jazz Club is decorated with a variety of artifacts including guitars, wind instruments, pictures and statues. Along with brickwork, tables with wooden chairs and forty visitors, the backdrop was a performance by the blues band The Juke Joint Heroes, led by frontman Eric Stanglin. This American from Oklahoma, who has lived in Prague for many years, is a guitarist, singer and composer focused on the blues, especially the classical. Eric says that the community of Prague blues musicians is not very big. "Prague is not Chicago.", he says with a smile, "There are a few musicians playing blues, but they rotate in different formations. If you come to another gig of mine in a few days, probably at least two musicians will be different." The opening of the show, which starts at a quarter to ten, is dominated by slide guitar, which Eric uses in a number of other songs. The band's sound is commensurate with the space, only the harmonica, provided by Mark Nessmith, could be clearer and more distinct. The rhythm section works reliably, albeit with a certain caution that comes from the small number of concerts played together. Bassist Dmitry Maschkov is playing some of the songs live for the first time and hasn't done much with the reliable drummer Jan Podzimek. The band doesn't hide this fact and almost before every song the musicians prefer to make sure what key they will play in. The fourth track of the set list is a rumba blues played in D minor with an interestingly built guitar solo. Some influences and inspirations are evident, for example on the fourth track in particular Carlos Santana (Black Magic Women), and Johnny Winter or Rory Gallagher on others. But that's common in blues, as most of the riffs, schisms, techniques come from roots that are still a few decades older. Ancient vocal and instrumental patterns then influence whole generations of younger musicians.

The break comes forcibly a few songs early. Eric shows the audience a broken string and it's clear that it's not to be played with. The band enters the second part with a brisk rock 'n' roll played in C major. To their own compositions, three of which, namely Tornado Alley Blues, No Good Doney and Going to Huntsville come from the album Whistling Past the Graveyard (2012), they add stuff taken mostly from true blues veterans. Represented by Willie Dixon (Little Red Rooster), Big Bill Broonzy (Key to the Highway), Robert Johnson (Stop Breaking Down) and especially Elmore James (It Hurts Me Too). The performances are raw and straightforward. Eric would certainly have appreciated the help of a second guitarist on some of the songs, as keeping up with the passages, playing the backing and phrasing accurately at the same time is almost a superhuman task. The vocal delivery is based more on expression than intonation, giving a sound closer to the period character of classic blues songs. Eric relies more on staccato and makes virtually no use of long tremolo notes or reverb. Many of the songs are therefore more narrated than sung. An evening of blues, rock 'n' roll, boogie and in one case pure country performed by Eric Stanglin and The Juke Joint Heroes kept the audience entertained. The audience applauded the band's performance, the songs played and the individual instrumental solos and went home satisfied.

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