Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King - Served Up Texas Style: The Best Of The Smokin' Joe Kubek Band (2005)

Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King first hooked up in 1987, and their musical association has lasted nearly 20 years. Their albums are dependable affairs that stick close to good old barroom Texas blues, and if they seldom deviate from that, well, that's fine, because they do it as well as anyone this side of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Served Up Texas Style collects key tracks from the seven albums they recorded during the their ten-year stay at the Bullseye Blues label, an association that ended in 2003 when the band jumped to Blind Pig. The tone of this body of blues rock is so consistent that Served Up Texas Style unwinds as a unified, cohesive sequence, with a steady march of good old Texas roadhouse fun. Highlights include "Damn Traffic" from 1998's Take Your Best Shot, a loose as a goose cover of Jimmy Reed's "Natural Born Lover" from 1991's Steppin' Out Texas Style, the blistering "Texas Cadillac" from the 1994 album of the same title, and "Corn Palace," a delightful blues funk instrumental from 1995's Cryin' for the Moon. Nothing here will change your idea of modern music (the band follows the blues-rock template so faithfully that it is actually almost startling when Kubek uses a guitar talk box on "If You Know What I'm Sayin'" from 2000's Bite Me!), but there is a lot to be said for keeping things basic, and like the cover art for Served Up Texas Style, which shows a big ol' plate of barbecue servings, this band delivers music that will stick to your bones and you won't wander around afterward wondering what you just ate.