Birmingham Blues Rock band Big Wolf Band kept crowds excited, at Temperance Cafe, with their revised line-up. The line-up was Jonathan Earp (guitar & vocals), Justin Johnson (guitar & vocals) & Tim Jones (drums) who were joined with new keyboard player Arran Shanghavi and depping bass player Mike Hatton. The band’s founding bassist Mick Jeynes is taking a short break to deal with family issues.
The interplay between Jonathan and Aaron excited the audience with Aaron’s bubbling personality and great range of keyboard playing bringing a new level to the band. Mike brought with him his Jazz background to give an updated bass line including a bass solo on ‘Six Strings Loaded’
The band are about to start the second leg of a European tour going to Belgium at CC de Steiger in Menen, after playing at several venues in the Czech Republic as well as at Spirit of 66 in Verviers in March.
The band’s latest album Rebel’s Journey, released in 2024, is up for best album at the UK Blues Awards at the Stables MK on 16th April 2025.
The set kicked off with some of their classic raunchy blues rock songs ‘Living on Borrowed Time’, with great keys from Aaron, ‘Valley of the Fallen Kings’ which is a hard rocking number with great vocals from Jonathan and ‘Got Me Reeling’ with its great bluesy vocals from Jonathan.
Then Jonathan explained that the new live album, recorded late last year at Joe Joe Jims in Birmingham had its master ready but it needed permission from Joe Bonamassa’s management so the song ‘Oh Beautiful’ could be included.
Next the band played more songs from the latest album including ‘Lay It on the Line’ with its great guitar and keyboards breaks and ‘Darker Side of You’ about mental health issues.
Following we had Justin step up to lead vocals on ‘Rolling with Thunder’ before the first half finished with songs about women with ‘If I Ever Loved Another Woman’ with its soaring guitar to a slower tempo and passionate vocals and then ‘Hot Blooded Woman’ which was off the band’s first album A Rebel’s Story with a tweaked ending.
Then after a break the band, now with a fan to cool them down!, with ‘Heaven’s Got the Blues’ with its great harmonies from Justin & Jonathan to a raunchy tune and ‘Done Wrong By You’ with its keyboard break and then great interplay between Jonathan and Arran.
The next few songs were more funky with ‘Super Animal’ with its guitar break to start and then short section with a unison stop before kicking properly into the funky beat. Then as Jonathan said the band went off script with a The Meters song ’Sissy Strut’ with its heavy drumming and great keyboard sound before a guitar break from Jonathan.
To finish we had ‘Standing in the Rain’ with its slower tempo but with passion with great vocals and guitar work, ‘Black Dog Blues’ which is a heavy blues rock number with funky keys and raunchy guitars and Deep Purple style keyboard interlude from Aaron before finishing with great interplay between Aaron and Jonathan. Then the last song was ‘Empire & a Prayer’ with its great vocals to this great blues song.
After great applause the band came back for an encore with ‘Goin’ Down’ with its keyboard break wizardry and rock finish.
