The Cash Box Kings are an impressive group. According to Living Blues magazine, they’re “one of the best blues bands in the land,” and The Chicago Tribune has called their style of blues “fearless and full tilt.”
Harmonica player and vocalist Joe Nosek founded the band in 2001. Oscar Wilson is the lead vocalist. Billy Flynn plays lead and baritone guitar. Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith is the drummer. John W. Lauler is on upright and electric bass, and Lee Kanehira plays piano and organ.
The band is co-led by Nosek and Wilson. Wilson says the group has enjoyed a steady progression since he joined in 2007. “It was heaven-sent, because we were made for each other. Ain’t many singers like me, and ain’t many bands who play like they play.”
The band’s most recent album is called Oscar’s Motel. Wilson did much of the writing and arranging during the pandemic, but he never wanted it to be a solitary project. He says, “When I brought it to the band, it clicked.” It’s an upbeat record that blends vintage sounds with modern, playful musicianship.
Wilson focuses on singing when he’s with The Cash Box Kings, but he also plays numerous instruments, including guitar and harmonica. He’s essentially self-taught. “My brother had an old harmony guitar he got from my uncle, who was a preacher. I just grabbed it and started making noise on it.” In high school he played brass instruments. “It just came natural,” he says. “If I can get my hands on it, I can get something out of it.”
In the band, he’s known as “Mr. 43rd Street.” He has a simple but poignant answer when asked about the nickname’s origins. “It comes from the people in my neighbourhood, when people started noticing that I was a singer. They would say, ‘Oh, Mr. 43rd!'” He is quick to add, “I mention it so as to not forget from whence I came.”
Oscar’s Motel includes nine Cash Box Kings originals, and two classic blues songs. Their version of Muddy Waters’ “Please Have Mercy” is somehow both timeless and contemporary, and Wilson says that’s important to him.
“We try to make the old new. I’m not Muddy Waters, and it took a while to just develop me. We don’t need clones. I just started doing things in my regular voice. Sometimes people say I sound like Jimmy Rogers. I say no, I sound like me.”
He says of The Cash Box Kings, “We will take an old song and put it on a new album,” and then adds of his own contribution, “I just do it my way.”
The Cash Box Kings will be at the Edmonton Blues Festival, which takes place at Klondike Park from August 16 – 18. Find the full lineup and festival info at bluesinternationalltd.com
Hear Muddy Waters’ “Please Have Mercy,” performed by The Cash Box Kings.
