A few days ago, I mentioned my old guitar teacher, Ron Roskowske. Last night, Ron sent me an email with some links for his band, The Kingdom Brothers.
Ron is a top notch musician. His day job is guitar teacher/choral director/band director at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in St. Louis and, that should tell you something right there. You know the old joke…
Q: How do you get a guitar player to turn down?
A: Put sheet music in front of him.
Ron defies the stereotype. He has the reading, writing and arranging chops plus, he can improvise, play an insanely wide variety of music, is one of the best slide players walking and has tone for miles.
A couple months ago, Ron told me that he was recording with a “blues and gospel band you might like called the Kingdom Brothers”.
The Kingdom Brothers are…
Tom Wilson - Lead Vocals
Bob Walther - Bass Guitar
Chris Shepherd - Guitar, Lead Vocals
Ron Roskowske - Lead Guitar
Stan Gill - Keyboards, Vocals
JR Payne - Drums
They are a blues band with a message or, as it says on their MySpace page, “On a Blues Mission from God.” The message isn’t heavy handed, just positive. Bob Walther says…
Some people may not understand how we can mix Blues/R&B and Gospel together. We don’t choose any material that is in any way offensive and really believe as the late great Larry Norman said, “Why should the devil have all the good music?”
These guys are playing some club dates, blues festivals and Christian music events.
Check out The Kingdom Brothers at their MySpace page or, take a look at a live video here and, let me know what you think.
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Tags: Blues, Guitar, Ron Roskowske, The Kingdom Brothers
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com wrote,
Beautiful! I don’t see why you can not mix these styles. If you think about it, how can Christian rock exist? Isn’t rock an aggressive style? I have always find it strange to listen it, but I am open minded :-)
Seriously, they are great and the guitar has some interesting approach. My opinion is that in blues, in most of the time you hear the same licks, most of the guitar players don’t take the time to come up with original licks, and the blues scale leads you easily to some already used patterns so it may be a bit more difficult than in other styles to be original, if you also count the 3 chords overused progressions, E, A, B.
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com’s last blog post..The warm feeling of success
Link | July 8th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Sans Direction wrote,
Christian Metal even exists. There’s a Christian coffeeshop that has a regular hardcore night once a month. I know a band that’s played it once or twice. Start out with “I’m a believer” and “I wanna rock out” and it goes from there.
I dislike CCM largely because I dislike the secular influences it seems to derive from. I do like these guys, but I like them blues.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..I Think I Got A Bootleg
Link | July 8th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Pat Darnell And Friends wrote,
Is that the same Ron who sold me guitar lessons when I asked about clarinet lessons, and I bought a white Squire that my number three stepson now uses? And the one who came back from the late 80’s Allman Bros concert with a third eye in his head?
I’ll be hornswaggledy!! Good Show Old Man!!
I never would’ve known what happened to Ron and his bride if you hadn’t written a blog, that I might not have found after twelve years.. no?
Excellent e,
Pat and the rest
former Fugitives’ Roadie/Groupie Grandfather Knucklehead
Pat Darnell And Friends’s last blog post..BRAIN Industry: New BLACK Berry for the Jangagnga
Link | July 8th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Pribek wrote,
Yep-that’s the same guy PD. and, Bless You for remembering the Fugitives.
Sans-CCM…Christian Coffeeshop Metal?
The only Christian metal I’ve really checked out seriously is As I Lay Dying, which Ry turned me on to. I wasn’t aware that they were a Christian band at first because I couldn’t decipher the lyrics but, I thought the playing was pretty innovative.
It occurs to me that the notion that music need either fall into a Christian or Secular categorization is jive.
Ovidiu-I seem to recall a recent post of yours where you talked about Satriani studying under Lenny Tristano. Ron is a guitarist who has studied extensively with and listened to musicians other than guitar players. He would probably tell you that this is a good way to foster fresh ideas.
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com wrote,
I guess you are right, because you are forced to think out of thebox, to step on new grounds.
Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com’s last blog post..Tal Wilkenfeld,22 yo, Jeff Beck’s new bass guitar wonder!!!
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
A funny thing happened when I was traveling over to Ron’s sites — I said “Wow, they’re playin’ Jack’s songs!!!” But of course I forgot to hit that || button over here…
Now, if you are waiting for my anecdotes from the Fugitives days, I refuse to parlay. I refuse to incriminate myself, pleading the fifth.
I too am on a mission: “A mission of cash flow..”
My visits for a while might seem infrequent.. I know you are all collectively wantonly crying over my expected absence… well it’s not permanent.
Don’t call yet for your cash advances… its not flipped’ yet. But it will. Lookin’ forward to that day.
Your Palikar: pd-in-full
Pat Darnell and Friends’s last blog post..MooPig’s Obscurity in Mind Mapping Department
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Pribek wrote,
“Now, if you are waiting for my anecdotes from the Fugitives days, I refuse to parlay. I refuse to incriminate myself, pleading the fifth.”
Best to let sleeping dogs lie, no?
Vague talk of money forthcoming-implications of big things around the corner-busy, busy, busy
You are starting to sound like a concert promoter, PD.
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Sans Direction wrote,
CCM = Contemporary Christian Music. Take the love songs of Journey and REO Speedwagon. Replace “girl” with “God”. You’ve just gotten 80% of the way there.
I see your point on the labels. Phil Keaggy is a monster player no matter what label you affix to him.
My wife would get on me about playing secular music in the car sometimes. Then I brought out some Blind Willie Johnson, and she still complained.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..I Think I Got A Bootleg
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Pribek wrote,
Funny about Blind Willie.
Is there such a thing as Christian atonal music?
Interesting to me that you brought up “A Love Supreme” elsewhere, Sans. I hold that one in high regard for Spiritual content.
You might find this archive post interesting.
http://pribek.net/2007/07/24/coltrane-church/
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Sans Direction wrote,
I took a look. I’ll look more after work. It does look cool.
I don’t think there’s an album I hold at near the level I hold A Love Supreme. I don’t there’s a group that I think meets the level of Coltrane, Jones, Tyner and Garrison. Maybe there isn’t one that approaches it.
I think the audience for atonal music is so small that subdividing it would lead to fractional audience members. (”We had 3.4 people at the show. That one seat will never be clean again.”)
I’m with you on the labeling == jive thing, to a point. There is a significant crossover between Christian music meant as part of the praise&worship section of a service and Christian music as the popular music for believers, that they’ll play while driving, etc.
More later, I gotta work.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..I Think I Got A Bootleg
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Pribek wrote,
I think that the term “Christian Music” has it’s roots in marketing. I’m not talking about music used for liturgic purpose. I think that some people that wanted to sell music were saying, if we identify this as “Christian”, you as a listener won’t be offended by any of the content. It’s an identifying term.
Going back in time, the old saw was-”Gospel is the Lords music and the blues is the devil’s music”. It works both ways, if you attach evil, taboo, to something it adds commercial value a lot of times. As a kid, I was fascinated by the idea of Black Sabbath because it seemed to terrify old people. Turns out that Ozzy is really Regis, how evil is that?
To say that a blues musician or listener isn’t Christian because of the music they frequent or that a Christian musician or listener can’t be evil; ridiculous.
The system of tertiary harmony became popular because folks said it symbolized the Holy Trinity. Quartile harmony was evil and the augmented 5 was el tono diablo. Coltrane played 6s, 11s, 13s, +5s and flat 5s all the time.
I think good music is inspired music. I also think that Charles Manson writes crappy songs.
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Sans Direction wrote,
I still find myself singing “Garbage Dump” on occasion, but on the greater point, yeah, Manson is a crappy songwriter.
I’ve heard a really strange rumor about Ozzy, based upon why Ozzy splashes water everywhere in his live show, but the bigger point about Ozzy being Regis? Gotcha. I recall seeing more than one documentary with Alice Cooper saying he invited Mae West and Groucho Marx to a show, and they knew good vaudeville when they saw it, so they loved it. But it’s all show, all entertainment. And that’s OK.
Sans Direction’s last blog post..I Think I Got A Bootleg
Link | July 9th, 2008 at 7:40 pm