Best of CMJ 2014: Johnnie Lee Jordan & the Boys

From JPs report of Day 4 of the CMJ Music Marathon 2014: "After almost four days of running, and watching live music standing, I actually got to sit down to watch Johnnie Lee Jordan & the Boys‘ set, which was a crazy new concept for me (and almost felt like cheating). I surprisingly had a little time before they went on, so I shut my eyes and nodded off for a quick minute. I awoke to the first distorted licks to a cool, heavy Southern blues style of rock you would never have expected to come out of LI. Having grown up there, I know the vast majority of the Long Island music scene consists of metal bands, emo bands, and alternative weirdo bands. Not this. It started a little slow and heavy, almost desperate. Then it was like a flick switched, and I wasn’t drowsy anymore. What ensued was a most excellent modern variation of old school rockabilly and blues rock that made me question which state, and perhaps which decade I lived in. It was during their third song—a very slowed down, handsome sounding beat — that I thought to myself, “why aren’t there more bands doing this?” Honest love songs rocked gently, and sometimes not so gently, to their ladies of dedication, whoever they may be.