Blues legends coming to Stanhope House

STANHOPE — This May, over two consecutive weekends, the Stanhope House will welcome Blues legends Smokin' Joe Kubek on Friday, May 4, and Walter Trout on Saturday, May 12. Kubek, who was born to play the guitar, has the technique and the chops to burn up any stage and has been doing so for the past 27 years. A guitar prodigy at the age of 14, the Texas musician frequented the Dallas bar scene during the 1970s and early 80s, playing with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King. Kubek met guitarist/vocalist Bnois King at a Monday night Dallas jam session. The two became fast friends, and melded their seemingly divergent styles — Kubek a rocking and fierce picker and slider, King a jazz-inflected chorder — into one of the most potent guitar combinations the southwest had ever produced. “I pull the blues out of him, and he pulls the jazz out of me," said Kubek. "Bnois knows so much about jazz it’s amazing.” Trout spent five years in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and was a member of Canned Heat, two of the style's supremely influential bands. He's also supported a slew of classic artists including John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton and Joe Tex. As a front man the six-string virtuoso developed a conflagrant approach to his instrument and a reputation for tornado-strength live shows that led famed BBC disc jockey Bob Harris to call him "the world's greatest rock guitarist." The Stanhope House is located at 45 Main Street in Stanhope, just a few short minutes from Routes 80, 46 and 206. For tickets and more information about these and other shows at the Stanhope House, visit www.stanhopehousenj.com or call 973-347-7777.