"I'm here to make you dance whether you want to or not," says Josh of performing. "It's a job - it's what I do." Then he cracks a smile, adding "..but I like it."
You'll like it, too.
A truly accomplished performer, Josh has entertained audiences from New York to San Francisco, winning awards and sharing stages with some of today's best blues musicians. Along the way, he's developed a live show that is both spicy and soulful - one KVNF DJ enthusiastically called it "Bad to the Bone!"
Described by some as "George Thorogood with a bottle of whiskey and an old-time guitar," Josh's music is reminiscent of such greats as Byther Smith, Junior Kimbrough, T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf, and Buddy Guy. His aggressive, rhythmic guitar style and understated intensity never fail to move dancers onto the floor, and after experiencing Josh live, one can't help but feel good.
Josh explains: "It's good-time music! It's the same feeling as the weekend, or a pretty girl, or a fast car. Something that reminds you that life is good." After a pause, he adds, "...ain't always easy, but it's good."
That's the truth, and Josh knows it. He's worked just about every job from mechanic to farmhand to desk clerk - "I hate being inside!" - and lived as far flung as London. "I've slept on the floor of a train station, and been dead broke in a foreign country," Josh says of his travels. "Don't even ask about the time I almost got shot AND stabbed in the same day."
Perhaps experiences like that are why Josh's versions of such classics as "Who Do You Love," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Killin' Floor," and "Worried Life Blues" seem to come alive, and why burning originals like "Bad Bad Man" can make you dance and break your heart at the same time.
"Really, I just tell it like it is, and have a good time doing it...kinda like a Baptist church service," Josh jokes. And yet maybe he's not far off the mark. After a recent appearance at the Blu Sky Saloon in Cedaredge, one patron remarked, "Man, you're like a blues preacher or something! You're the real deal!"
A preacher? Maybe. A real good time? Definitely.
Booking:
617-669-4791
[email protected]
www.SonicBids.com/JoshKenning
www.JoshKenning.com
