Guitarist & Vocalist. Whether he is performing at popular venues around the mid-west, building custom oil can guitars, or teaching music for kid’s programs, Joe’s dedication to music is without question. While performing 200+ shows per year, Joe offers a vast variety of live music. His custom oil can guitars, “Hayburners,” have been sold all over the world and have been featured on FOX 9 News, Blues in Britain Magazine, CNET, and The Drive Magazine. Not only content with performing, Joe also serves as a music teacher and promoter of Blues for Kids, a music education program he created at the 501c3 non-profit organization, “Discover Music”. The program is known for organizing workshops at schools and festivals with the mission of teaching children of all ages about the Blues music genre with harmonica and guitar.

New Primitives was founded in 2003 by Stanley Kipper, a veteran drummer of the Southern California music scene. Leading up to the formation of the Prims, Stan had established his presence by playing with such legendary acts as Jay Ferguson, Joe Walsh, The Bee Gees, Randy Meisner, Minnie Ripperton, Gypsy and Bill Withers, as well as acting as producer on many albums. He enlisted long time friend, collaborator, Percussion expert, and former Gypsy bandmate Chico Perez, who himself had performed with recognizable names like Crow, Seventh Wave, and Colla. With Stan on Drums and lead vocals and Chico on Congas and Backing Vocals they, along with a handful of other musicians formed the initial line-up of New Primitives, and the journey began. The music is a mixture of different genres, Reggae/Ska, R&B, Afro Cuban, World Music, deep Funk and American Rock and Roll. Sometimes all played at the same time. New Primitive live shows are legendary, big fun, hypnotic, dance filled events where the music is designed to bring the performers and the audiences into greater focus and deep into the groove, all day or night long! Prim’s bring a unique vibe unmatched by any of their contemporaries! The band’s […]

Ask Tall Paul why he felt it was his purpose to emcee. Don’t expect the conventional “Nas and 2pac made me do it” kind of answer. “I started writing rhymes when I was 14. I was left in awe by 106th & Park’s ‘Freestyle Friday’ rap battle segment. When Jin won for 7 consecutive weeks, capping it off by signing a record deal with the Ruff Ryders, it was crazy. I didn’t actually start writing until shortly after that when I saw my cousin spittin’ into a tape recorder one day. From that point on I just liked the release that it gave me. The lure of the rock star lifestyle that rappers exhibited in music videos was cool too.” Born and raised in Minneapolis, MN, Tall Paul grew up listening to hip hop from all regions. “As a kid I was listening to whoever my brothers and cousins were listening to – Snoop, 2Pac, Biggie, The Fugees, the Luniz, Bone Thugs, Twista and the Speedknot Mobstaz, DMX, and the list goes on.” This would ultimately help mold his fatherless style of flow.  In 2009 Tall Paul decided to take rhyming more serious, both recording and performing live for the […]

Drummer, Guitarist, Vocalist. Growing up in the tough west side neighborhoods of 1950’s Chicago, he didn’t have  much.   Many times, Allen’s Uncle Joe would take him out for a walk that would  end up at the corner bar where Joe would sit Allen on a stool, drop a quarter in the jukebox and depression in teens step outside with his friends to drink a little bit of wine.   While waiting there, Allen would hear all the greats…  Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf,  Little Walter, B.B. King, Jimmy Reed as well as Ethel Merman, Howard Keel, Dewayne Eddy, Elvis, The Moonglows and the Spaniels.  Those days laid the you can check here beginnings of a lifelong passion for music. As a teen, baseball was his claim to fame, but there was a different dream calling.  Allen Kirk has been a natural since the day in 1965 when he sat behind Dirty Red’s drum kit and started playing favorite soul hits. Allen paid his dues on Halsted Street backing up many of Chicago’s greatest at the Kingston Mines.   Across the street at B.L.U.E.S.  he worked with Sunnyland Slim, Bob Stroger, Sam Burkhardt and legendary blues drummer Robert Covington.  It was Robert who took Allen under […]

Muja Messiah- Thee Adventures Of A B-Boy D-Boy  A veteran of Minneapolis underground Hip-Hop scene, Muja Messiah, released his first full-length album, Thee Adventures of a B-Boy D-Boy . The Minneapolis based MC is know for his politically incorrect satire as he combines serious issues along with comedy and street anthems that attract the ‘thinking wo/man’ to his sound. With politically charged subject matter like the powerful anti-Bush song, “Patriot Act,” featuring I-Self Devine and “Give It Up,” featuring Black Thought of The Roots, Messiah is lyrically bursting of passion and his message is stronger than ever! Thee Adventures of a B-Boy D-Boy was originally slated to be called Niggativity when the process started in 2006. After working with Che Vicious (Dr.Dre/Eminen) in Los Angeles during the spring of 2007 and with advice from Slug and I-Self Devine, Muja Messiah was out to make a classic album that represented Minneapolis’ harder side. The concept and ideas for the album evolved and Messiah dropped the name Niggitivity, and recorded a fresh batch of songs including bangers-“You Betcha,” “Never Be Broke Again,” and “Pretty Gurl.” Working with longtime producer Doc (Esthero/RES/Young Buck) on the emotional “Growing Pains” Muja shows a vulnerable side […]