Jeff Shew & The Late-Night Crew – Ghosts
Independent
12 Tracks – 49 minutes
Jeff Shew grew up in Chicago where he was tutored by the legendary Pinetop Perkins and got to play with him for several years while living in LaPorte. Indiana. In 2003, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana to study music and ethnomusicology at Indiana University. Now living in Southern Indiana, Jeff is constantly on the move showing up in gigs with multiple bands. But his chief bands are King Bee and The Stingers and now with his self- named band with The Late-Night Crew. He sings, plays bass, sax, guitar, is a seasoned songwriter, producer, publicist, talent buyer and booking agent, and is the director of the Bloomington Blues Group and manages the Bloomington, Indiana Blues Jam and the Madison, Indiana Ribberfest. So, with all of that, it is not surprising that he compiles all of his activities into the aptly titled Whirlwind Agency.
Mark Carnes plays harmonica for the group. Mark has played with numerous bands for 40 years, but first joined with Jeff in the duo, Carnes & Shew. The duo won the Kentuckiana Blues Society’s Challenge in 2019 and was a semi-finalist at the IBC in 2020. Mark is also a member of King Bee and The Stingers. Drummer Paul Karaffa has been playing drums since age 11 and has played with Booker T. Jones, Todd Rundgren, Guitar Shorty and Big Bill Morganfield and currently shares duties with King Bee and The Stingers.
Guitarist Steve Houk fronts his own band and is the lead guitarist for The Late-Night Crew. He has sat in with Joe Kubek, Doyle Bramhall, Levon Helm and others. John Abel provides additional guitar and also brings 40 years of experience to the group. Brian Gill started piano lessons at age 6 and also has a large resume of bands and now plays keyboards for The Late-Night Crew.
The album kicks off with a rousing blues rock number “Down to the Valley” as he sings, “I went down to save my soul…down to Spring Valley, Indiana in western Indiana where I got a taste of the great unknown”. “Chasin’ That Feelin’ Again” takes a shift into a rhumba with a touch of Eastern European music with Carolyn Dutton guesting on fiddle and Jeff says, “I just want to go back to the place where I feel safe”. “With Every Breath” moves back into a blues mode with Mark’s harp up front as Jeff expresses, ” I thought I had it all, could be free then the taxman took it all away from me. Worry about money every single day, I got it spent as soon as I get paid”.
Steve rolls about some excellent blues guitar runs with Marks’ harp underlying with Jeff proclaiming, “I spent so many years trying to do the things you want me to”. You got to stop following me around” and “Let Our Love Die”. The haunting “Running for My Life” tells of a confrontation with the supernatural as he “got lost on Halloween night”. ” I went down where your garden grows, got lost in-between the rows. I heard the sound of life and then I froze”. Carolyn’s fiddle kicks everything back into a Middle Eastern sound again on “Burned It All Away” amid a story of murder.
On “Love, You Have Done Me Wrong”, Jeff proclaims ” She takes my heart and then she runs. Now I know I am not the only one. They say that time will heal all” in a call and response song. In a slow blues “Won’t Be the Death of Me”, Jeff identifies “another whiskey bottle empty, cigarette butts on the floor, light peaked through the curtain as he reached for another pour. My life is still aching, How I long to be back with you”. “Love Lost Summer” offers a throwback to an early 60’s rock as he sings “Woke up in my car with the sun beating down, missing you, my love. Why did you decide to leave town?” with female backing vocalists singing “ooh sha la la”.
“The deeper winds have changed, but then you came along, the whole world rejoiced, those angels sang with a brand-new voice” as he sees the world with “Brand New Eyes”. Jeff states “I’ve been trying for years to fix my brain…there’s too much pain”. “Nothing can save me from “This Life I Have Led”. Sarah Menefee, the lead vocalist for King Bee and The Stingers joins Jeff for a waltz on a cover of Tom Waits’ 1987 song “Innocent When You Dream” from Tom’s album Frank’s Wild Years.
After being a member of so many bands, Jeff Shew steps out to give his voice and tell his stories in his own band. The style of music crosses paths of many genres with a deep poetic story telling central to every song and delivered in Jeff’s strong, clear vocals.
