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artist information

Popa Chubby

Born Ted Horowitz in the Bronx New York in 1960 Pop Chubby has managed things shrewdly to become one of the rising Blues start of the new Millennium.  From his origins on the New York Punk Rock scene, (Richard Hell and the Voidoids) to his adventures as one of the New Yorks top recording and live artists he has always kept one foot in his roots which are the Blues.  However Popa Chubby has never been satisfied with a limited vision of things.

After an impressive collaboration with the legendary producer Tom Dowd on the 1994 O-Keh/Sony release, "Booty and the Beast", he began infusing larger doses of Rock, Funk, Space, Jazz, and Rap into his alchemy, stretching the boundaries to create the New York City Blues.  His previous studio recording, "Brooklyn Basement Blues" magnifies the genre.  He explains unequivocally : "New York Blues is raw urban music that hits you in the face.  It's the real thing, honest and true, no pretense or waste of time".

Desire comes through the heroes revelation, the initiation ceremony being performed by people whose names are Muddy, Willie, Freddy, Albert or Robert ("Carrying On The Torch Of The Blues"). Life, his life, is revealed to him and he does not like what he sees ("Time Is Killing Me"). His passion for the Blues is revealed to him through his parents (the single "Daddy Played The Guitar And Mama Was A Disco Queen").  In this song the heroes story joins Popa Chubbys own life in a fierce rap that breaks out in the perfect spirit of the New York City Blues ("I come from Queens, the land of the Mets/ Went to Flushing High School, smoking menthol cigarettes/ Fought in the gang fights with all of my friends/Throwing bricks down from the roof trying to kill the man). A story of survival, of broken lives and lost souls. And that's how A White Boy Got The Blues.

Temptation (blues central theme, magnified by Robert Johnson on "Crossroads") is what every blues musician, including our hero, has to face.  What could explain it better than this "Black Hearted Woman" ?  Because, playing the blues often means embarking on a life of hard times and low fees when it would be so easy to yield to the evil charm of that woman. At the risk of losing your soul.  In the end, our hero will find his way, the way of the blues.  Even though it means a life with no comfort or stability ("No Comfort").

Finally comes the release, with self-accomplishment in spite of circumstances.  At this point, Pop Chubby's lyrics become political and he is not afraid to criticize, in "Its A Sad Day In New York City When There Ain't No Room For The Blues", Rudolph Giuliani's management as well as the flaws of a mondialist view of things, symbolized by Times Square turned into a sort of Disneyland.  In this final stage of the opus, our hero turns back to his masters, with no illusions about the world around him, but at peace with himself.  With a particular bow to William Dixon, to whom Popa Chubby pays a vibrant tribute in "Going Down To Willie's" & "Lost My Leg" (referring to the bluesman's amputation). So all is said with this return to his roots.

From there, one starts to dream of the huge possibilities, considering our man, offered by such a project brought to the stage.  The idea is suspected to be at work in the New-Yorker's mind.  We will probably find out more about it on his coming spring tour, during which he will play the Olympia, the legendary Paris venue.  One more challenge and not the least of them.  But we already know how Popa Chubby treats those!

Dixiefrog.