About the Players

(Alex Borden Photo)

Harmonica, lead Vocals

Formerly with Good Rockin' Daddy, Bob now calls Blues Bar-BQ his musical home. He's a dynamite harp player with over 30 years of experience under his belt, a great singer and entertaining front man for the band. Over the years Bob has played with Walter Trout and some other big names in blues. He has also written a number of songs which are being incorporated into the BBBQ repertoire. Bob's major early influences were Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Big Walter Horton and Paul Butterfield. 

Bob has shared the stage with Rod Piazza, Willie Nelson, Koko Taylor, Corky Siegle, Danny Timms and Tommy Castro and has opened for BB King, William Clarke, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Junior Wells and Marcia Ball.

Brion Munsey

Upright bass, Bass Guitar, Vocals

Brion is a big man that brings a big bass beat with him. Brion started out playing tuba and trombone through middle school, high school and college before stringing up his first bass in the late 80's. 

After the usual garage band stint, Brion played the local Orange County and LA club scene with classic rock bands Dick Citizen, No End, and Steve Malloy’s Impact during the 199o's. After years of “duplicating” the sounds of the famous rock bands and bass players, he decided to explore other styles of music that allowed for more freedom of expression during live performances. Blues was a natural choice. 

During the late 90s he played live and recorded the blues for several years with Blind Alley, a band that would later splinter off into other groups. They still perform occasionally. Since then, Brion has played with a wide range of blues acts including Raging Sun, LA Jones, Elnora & Somethin's Cookin, Blue Vision, King of Clubs and many others.  

Brion's biggest influences are Willie Dixon, Big Ernest Crawford, Larry Taylor, Mudcat Ward, Tommy Shannon, Buddy Guy and more.  Main axes are a Swingmaster upright and '93 Fender Custom Shop jazz bass. He plays through SWR amplification, mostly the Black Beauty 1 x 15” combo. 

Piano, organ, backup vocals

“The Boogieman” has been playing boogie woogie piano for over 40 years starting at the age of 12.  He’s no stranger to the 88’s.  Craig plays in a spare but authentic style grounded in 1930's and -40's boogie woogie and blues.

Craig has played locally with The Southside Blues Band, 2000 Pounds of Blues, Cryin' Shame, Hank Deluxe  and has backed up L.A. Jones, Joe Houston and Johnny Dyer. He has also opened for longtime friend Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers on several occasions. With Blues Bar-BQ Craig has opened for Walter Trout, Tommy Castro, Marcia Ball and Kim Wilson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Influences: Hugh "Blackie" Murray, Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Little Brother Montgomery, Mary Lou Williams, Otis Spann, Ray Charles, Johnny Johnson.

Craig bought his first beat-up upright piano at age 16, which went in the family garage so he could play Boogie Woogie whenever he felt like it.  (Mom's good piano in the house was reserved for "proper" music.) Several years ago he restored a giant mahogany upright from the 1920's that now resides in his living room, but he plays a Kurzweil PC88mx on stage. Craig recently added a Roland VK-7 to the stack to get a better Hammond B3 sound for some of the songs. The old upright was used to record "Bar-BQ Boogie," the title song from the third and latest CD.

Drums, vocals

Joe grew up in a musical family. His mother played in her own jump, boogie, swing band, and all of his brothers also have their own bands at this time. he recorded his first record at the age of 16 and has played with numerous projects such as big band, country, rock and blues. He has played at the Original Crazy Horse, BB King’s, Irvine Meadows and in a number of television appearances. JoJo was honored with a nice writeup in the November 2003 issue of the national publication Modern Drummer on their "On the Move" page. See the PRESS page for details.

Recently Joe has backed up blues legends Finis Tasby and Deacon Jones (both longtime John Lee Hooker sidemen) and Johnny Tucker. He also played a benefit for the late Darryl Reynolds where he had the privilege of backing up Bobby Blue plus members of the Platters, the Drifters, the Coasters, the Ink Spots and the Marvelletes. Joe’s diversified drumming compliments his fellow musicians, and you are guaranteed a good time with the swing, jump, blues and boogie they will unleash.

Guitar, vocals

Blues Bar-BQ's newest and youngest member hails from Southern California. Geoff has spent the past 15 years actively playing his own brand of blues and rock on the Southland club circuit as well as spending some time in the Lone Star state. As far back as he can remember the sounds of B.B. King, Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Paul Butterfield, Cream and Hendrix were the sounds that would eventually cause him to pick up the guitar and start playing at 8 years old.  With the introduction of Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous T-Birds and Robert Cray in the eighties Geoff was attracted to the new energy in the blues and would start researching and committing his time to playing the old and new school blues that influenced this hot new generation of guitar slingers. 

Some of the bands that Geoff has played for over the years include, Cactus Handle and the Love Hold Guarantee, Suicide 69, Brotherhood Exchange, Flirt, the VibeRiders, and more recently fronting  his own original trio as Buck Wildstar. Geoff has shared the stage with Rod Piazza, James Harman, Marcia Ball, Tinsley Ellis, Anthony Gomes, the Paladins, David Hildago of Los Lobos to name a few.  In addition, he has sat in and played with some of the modern blues greats like CoCo Montoya, Sam Myers, Hash Brown, Kirk “Eli” Fletcher, and B.B. Chung King .