Posted by John J. Moser at 01:30:00 AM on September 30, 2010
In its 35-year history, seminal New Jersey rockers Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes has always channeled its audiences’ emotions in its songs — typically in boozy, bluesy tunes such as “I Don’t Want to Go Home” or Sam Cooke’s “Having a Party.” But that’s not the case with the band’s newest disc, “Pills and Ammo,” a collection of series songs set to swampy rock on which front man Johnny Lyon sings with a bluesy voice on tunes that wouldn’t sound out of place on Bob Dylan’s watermark late ‘80s disc “Oh Mercy.”
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes formed around the same time and place as Bruce Springsteen’s E Street band and cross-pollinated with the group so much that E Street members Max Weinberg, Patti Scialfa and Steven Van Zandt all were Jukes at one point. But while others found huge success, Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes never had a chart-topping hit or platinum album. Its late 1970s releases marked its commercial high point, though 1991’s “Better Days,” also produced by Van Zandt and with contributions from Springsteen and fellow Jerseyite Jon Bon Jovi, was a critics’ favorite. (…)
In a recent telephone interview from New Jersey, where he still lives, Lyon talked about the new disc, his history with Springsteen and life as a Juke at 60.
Read the interview at the Lehigh Valley Music Blog




Southside Johnny is getting in touch with his inner Mick Jagger.
It might be a slower time with all things Jukes right now… and fighting the tough weather in and around New Jersey is keeping everybody more than busy. But as long as telephone lines are operating, the occasional interviews with the band leader are still one thing to look out for. It takes more than a winter storm to stop Southside Johnny!
As the whole JUKES family was on their way to Florida to play the HARD ROCK in Orlando, Jim Abbott of the ORLANDO SENTINEL’S SOUNDBOARD managed to have a short conversation with Johnny. Although Jim fantasizes a bit about the guy who is going to play the Super Bowl halftime in Tampa – and with that he’s not alone to fantasize about the different possible combinations of JUKES and E-STREETERS on a stage on the same weekend in Florida – he still manages to catch a few nice quotes from Southside Johnny:
Little Steven got interviewed by the EVENING HERALD, an Irish newspaper published in Dublin. While the motivation for the writeup has been the syndication of Steven’s UNDERGROUND GARAGE radio program on a Dublin station, he does give some reflections about his musical career pre-1999 and promotes his latest campaign.
This comes in from the
“Presenting some of the best music you’ve never heard, including an eclectic mix of exciting new tracks featuring the best of Americana, Alt Country, Indie, World, Nu-Folk and Blues. As someone said to Bob in New Orleans recently – “music is all around, all you have to do is listen”. This could be the motto of the show.” – that is what the BBC2 Website says about the Bob Harris Show on BBC Radio 2.
