Popa Chubby – Stealing The Devil’s Guitar

A young boy sits with his father in a smokey bar. Upon a dimly lit stage an old man grunts and wheezes as he plays the blues on a battered 6 strings. With a piece of glass on his little finger he slides his way into the soul of the young boy and without words the torch is passed. The boy is initiated in that moment into a world where he will know the pain and trials that make the real blues. The blues that Robert Johnson and Hank Williams moaned about. The loneliness the soul searching the searing highs and the wretched lows.

This record is about a rite of passage as a young man comes of age into his own blues. It takes up where “How’d a White Boy Get The Blues” left off.

The young man is young no longer he holds the devil’s guitar, his 66 Strat has been to places most dream of. The 13 songs on this record represent a journey through the real life blues of Popa Chubby. Popa writes from life and from the first track hits a home run with the talking slide blues of “Slide Devil man Slide”. The tone is set and the journey unfolds.

Popa takes us into his world of sonic and lyrical salvation. This is Blues this is Rock and Roll this is Rap and Funk and all that is New York City.
Sonically this record offers the most textural Chubby to date with lots of slide, acoustic, mandolin, Sitar, and a heavy dose of hard blues/rock lead guitar.
The urbane rap tome of “Smugglers Game ” has middle eastern flavors and ejects the listenter to exotic border crossings in the context of a 4 minutes song.
The Western Saga of “Young Guns” sets the stage for a shootout between new and old because if you want to take the devil’s guitar you got to steal it !
The heartwrenching dirge of “Preacher Man” bemoans the trials of the entrusted.
Add to this two interesting covers, “Bold as love” (Jimi Hendrix) and “In This World” (Jessie Mae Hemphill).

This is certainely the Popa Chubby most important record to date !

Track Listing:
1. Slide Devil Man Slide - 4:22   2. Smuggler’s Game - 5:17   3. Why I Can't Have You - 5:28   4. Right On - 5:40   5. In This World - 4:10   6. Walking With Amar - 3:19   7. Stoned Again - 4:42   8. Young Guns - 3:37   9. Buffalo Chips - 1:29   10. Bold As Love - 4:13   11. Long Deep Hard And Wide - 3:11   12. Virgil And Smokey - 6:09   13. Preacher Man - 3:55   14. The Devil’s Guitar - 6:35   + Video: Smuggler's Game