Paul Lamb And The King Snakes + Support from The Untouchables

posted on 23rd Jun 2010

OK, we all know the stuff that turns up in biographies, is empty and meaningless because it's all been said before. So, let's talk plainly about Paul Lamb & The King Snakes, the best blues band in Britain.

It didn't happen suddenly. It took years of hard work and application, unfashionable words that signify little in these days of instant fame. As Paul can tell you, he and his band have done their individual time, made their mistakes, applied what they've learned, focused on their musicianship and the results are passed on to audiences that flock to their gigs. They in turn are guaranteed to enjoy genuine music performed with skill and mutual encouragement. It's a simple but sure formula.

Right now, the King Snakes are a refreshing mixture of (relative) youth and experience. The experience starting at the top, for Paul Lamb has spent the last thirty-some years whoopin' and hollerin' in clubs in his native North-East plus a later move to London, in concert and on festival stages, creating a personal synthesis of his harmonica heroes and his own unique and innate talent. His history includes representing Britain in the World Harmonica Championships, working with his particular mentor, Sonny Terry, and with any number of other blues artists who've visited these shores.

The original band Smokestack Lightning started in 1979 and metamorphosed through Barfly, then into the Blues Burglars. The Burglars made their recording debut, Breaking In, for Red Lightnin' in 1986.
Down in London the next incarnation was as the Paul Lamb Blues Band, with Rod Demick on bass and (for a while) ex-Yardbird Jim McCarty on drums, plus long term associate John Whitehill on lead guitar . However, it was as Paul Lamb and the King Snakes that they cut their album for Blue Horizon (CDBLUH 011).
It was this dedication to his craft ,that began to pay off, for this was the year that Paul was voted Instrumentalist Of The Year by the British Blues Connection, an accolade that would be his for six successive years, the band were UK Blues Band Of The Year for this and the next two years (and again in 1997 and 1998), while their Blue Horizon album became 1991 UK Album Of The Year, the first of several such awards.