Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears will guide its national tour through Murfreesboro, making a May 18 stop at Hop Springs.
The Texas-based group has been playing its soulful, funky, rock ’n’ roll jams—dripping in slide guitar and a little humor—for 15 years now, keeping alive the now somewhat vintage concept of a hard-working touring guitar rock band.
Black Joe Lewis has seemingly never been one who tried to fit into a particular stereotype, growing up listening to a mix of grunge rock, rap music and Prince.
He says he picked up guitar while working as a youth in an Austin, Texas, pawn shop handling, buying, selling and restocking the instruments.
Today, Black Joe—a name proudly taken from the antebellum Stephen Foster tune “Old Black Joe,” which to some may represent slave days and racial oppression—may pair a cowboy hat with his gold chains and Jordans.
And he leads his band back on the road on an extensive tour, following a stint working construction in Texas while the live music industry offered little opportunity during the height of the pandemic, according to an interview with NPR.
The Thursday, May 18, show at Hop Springs Beer Park kicks off at 8 p.m. Tickets, starting at $20, are available at ticketweb.com. Hop Springs is located at 6790 John Bragg Hwy, Murfreesboro.
Following the Murfreesboro gig, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears hit the Southern Skies Music Festival in Knoxville on May 20, and then play an Atlanta engagement on May 21.
