Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee That Radio Chick on Still Rockin' It for news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What are they up to at the moment? Let's find out .......
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What have Blues Roulette & The Screaming Jets' Jimi Hocking been up to lately? OR Rocking The Blues - No Rehearsal Required
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musician
Ever wondered what happens when skilled musicians throw away the sheet music and just play? Step into the world of Blues Roulette with Jimi "The Human" Hocking, guitarist for the Screaming Jets and internationally acclaimed blues artist.
Blues Roulette isn't your typical performance—it's musical improvisation at its finest. Founded by bassist Ben Wicks at Melbourne's Catfish venue, these shows feature a rhythm section backing guest artists with absolutely no rehearsal. "There's no charts, it's just get in and play," explains Jimi, whose relief was visible during his first performance when he realized the backing musicians could truly play.
Jimmi shares his remarkable journey as a blues musician parallel to his rock career with the Screaming Jets. In 2005, he became only the second non-American to win the prestigious Memphis International Blues Challenge—an extraordinary achievement considering hundreds of acts from around the world compete annually. Most fascinating is that all three non-American winners in the competition's history have been Australian, highlighting our country's unexpected prowess in this traditionally American art form.
Beyond technical proficiency, Jimi's approach to blues balances traditional elements with humor. "I like to write from a fun aspect," he says, comparing his style to Buddy Guy's more upbeat take on potentially gloomy subject matter. The Blues Roulette recordings capture these genuine moments—including musicians learning songs on the fly—preserving the raw, authentic spirit of true blues jamming.
For blues enthusiasts or anyone seeking an unfiltered musical experience, Blues Roulette delivers something increasingly rare: skilled musicians taking risks together in real-time, creating unique moments that will never be exactly replicated.
Check out their performances in Adelaide this weekend or discover their recordings at bluesroulette.com to experience this special musical phenomenon for yourself.
What has Jimi Hocking and Blues Roulette been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That Radio Chick Cheryl Lee here. Welcome to the Still Rockin it podcast where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Musician, promoter and booking agent Ben Wicks has spent the last 15 years forging his place in Australian blues and in 2015 Ben created Blues Roulette. With humble beginnings at Melbourne venue, the Catfish, the popularity of Blues Roulette and the nature of those one night only performances have resulted in appearances at festivals and venues across the country. As an artist primarily on bass guitar, ben has performed and or recorded with the likes of Dan Sulton, Lloyd Spiegel, Jeff Lang and Irish Mythen. They're on the road and today we speak to Blues Roulette favourite and all round nice guy Jimi Hocking, also known as the guitarist in the Screaming Jets. To catch up on podcasts from other favorite artists, simply go to that radiochickcomau.
Speaker 3:Cheryl Lee that radio chick and I'd like to welcome into the zoom room today jimi hocking.
Cheryl Lee:Jimi the human hocking
Jimi Hocking:Nice to be back on the show with you, cheryl yeah, lovely to see you again.
Cheryl Lee:So we're going to talk about today a little bit of a new thing called Blues Roulette, and you guys are coming to our beautiful town this coming weekend. You've been working with Ben Wicks on a blues project and it's a little bit different, isn't it? Because they sort of have their band and they invite, like you're an invited guest for the moment. Is that right?
Jimi Hocking:That's right. In fact I've been doing it a couple of years now, off and on. The premise of the thing was it's the brainchild of Mr Ben Wicks, who's the bassist in the band. We've had a couple of drummers, or he's had a couple of drummers do it. The recent one, johnny Chesarero, is the current Melbourne drummer. I think Davo Fester's actually coming over to Adelaide with us.
Jimi Hocking:But the story starts where he got a gig going in a place called the Catfish in Melbourne and he would just put on a rhythm section and have guest people each week come in and front the band. So to do the show you would have to come in pretty much with a kind of a generic blues repertoire that could be learned on the spot. There's no rehearsal, there's no charts, it's just get in and play, which is not uncommon for blues jam situations. That's right. So Ben had started this thing probably months before he even spoke to me about it. I didn't know him so well, I knew him a little bit through the scene, but he reached out and said would I come and do a spot? Of course I said yes. So I went over there and did a thing and he loves to tell a story still, because there's blues jams all over the world and many of them are fantastic. But occasionally there are some disastrous ones where people are not up to scratch, and I'm sure we've all witnessed that. But bless everybody who's you know playing for the love of it. I'm a big supporter. But he reckons that we started the gig and I launched into the first counted in the first song and then when the rhythm section started playing and I realized that they could play, he reckons my shoulders went down. There was this real relief that it was going to all be good and that's probably the case. So we started doing those shows.
Jimi Hocking:I would do a couple a year, as would a bunch of people. I did some special feature ones where I brought a guest of my own each week for a month. I did some special feature ones where I brought a guest of my own each week for a month. I did I think that was about a year or so ago and he said I had this idea that I could bring people from the rock and roll world into the blues scene. So I remember I asked Phil Sobrano to come and play as a sideman with me and Blues Roulette. Kathleen Halloran came and did one with me in the early days of her doing some blues shows. We had Timmy Henwood do one, Dave Leslie do one, so it was great fun and it's just a jam, a guitar jam with the rhythm section, and then I sing some blues songs. But this is a longer answer than you'd hope for, I'm sure.
Cheryl Lee:No, not at all, no, but it's fantastic so it sort of happens organically, and I totally get how when you've played with them the first time. It'd be a little bit. What have I got myself into? And then you're like, oh, thank god yeah, that's right.
Jimi Hocking:And now I've done a bunch of them and and really, even though, uh, it's, it's all pretty much on the spot, still the boys have got to know what I'm likely to do which is in my personal repertoire. So now it's even better because we can expand on that, you know. So they know what kind of things I'm likely to do, where I'm likely to go, but I still try to keep them on their toes, you know, by throwing some curveballs into the mix this is why we love the blues, because it's full of surprises you never know what you're going to get.
Cheryl Lee:A lot of the time the outfit is called Blues Roulette and if you go to their website it's called bluesroulettecom. There's five CDs on the website that are available, but there's a couple more of yours that are oh, yeah great. There's some fabulous favourites on there and a few I haven't heard before so that's always good as well.
Jimi Hocking:There's probably a couple of original things that people have put in. But the original gig at the catfish had the facility to record any gig, so those cds actually have got a few warts and all kind of tracks on them. I think the charm of them is they are genuine jam sessions. Yeah and uh. They are really not rehearsed, they are really thrown in. You can hear people learning the songs on the spot, sometimes in the early part of the track. In our town that's become like the charm of it. You know the blues thing is a legit jam and not a contrived one.
Cheryl Lee:Exactly.
Jimi Hocking:So the CDs kind of reflect that, which is nice.
Cheryl Lee:You are listening to Still Rockin it, the podcast with Cheryl Lee. One of my favourite of the blues roulette albums is Jimi Hocking's Blues Driver. This is the first track, Mercury Blues, and then we're back to speak some more to Jimi.
Jimi Hocking:I did. Yes, I can't believe you knew about that one. It was at Prahran Market, which is an old stomping ground for a lot of people down there. I used to live in Windsor, up the road from Prahran Market, so I did that one. A bunch of people did it. Once again, ben's the guy. He does all the elbow work. He puts it all together. I'm really a passenger in the blues roulette world, but I'm a very happy passenger because if someone else says, look, I'll do all the work and you just set up a play, you're in.
Cheryl Lee:A lot of people will recognize you, obviously, jimi, from your work with the Screaming Jets. Of course, some people may not know that you actually do have a little bit of a blues pedigree because you won the 2005 Memphis International Blues Challenge.
Jimi Hocking:I did and you know I've long had a dual career going on because of course I joined the Jets in 93, although I was absent for a few years in the middle. I started with the band some 32, 33 years ago and even when I was not in the band, gleaso and I were always. We were close very early in the game and I was really in the loop with David all the time In fact in my years away from the band. Gleaso and I did his solo album Wanted man in that time. So I've always been kind of involved in the band, irrespective of my onstage status. And I joined.
Jimi Hocking:I first met the Screaming Jets when they opened for me in my act as Jimmy the Humanist, as expected in Melbourne when they first started. So they had no profile in Melbourne and I had a great profile in Melbourne and it was the opposite in Sydney. They had a great profile, et cetera, et cetera. So there's been that. But all the way through this I've had original bands on the side. That's how I started in the game and I've always loved blues and in my absence from the Jets for those couple of years I started going to New York and working one of the blues clubs over there Terra Blues in Manhattan I was in the house band for a little while, so I've recorded three electric blues albums. And then in 2005 came along, I was the Blues Performer of the Year in Melbourne, which is the criteria to go to Memphis and be at the festival there the International Blues Challenge where I became the second person outside of America to win that award.
Speaker 3:Congratulations.
Jimi Hocking:Thank you, and it's worth noting that there's only been three people outside of America all these years who have won the International Blues Challenge, and they are all from Australia.
Cheryl Lee:Awesome, who's the other two?
Jimi Hocking:Recently. Frank Sultana, from Sydney, was the recent winner and, apart from myself, Fiona Boyes, also from Melbourne, another old mate of mine she also won it. So for people to understand, when you get to this festival, there is hundreds of acts there. The meet and greet is 2,000 people strong. There's people from all over the world. Every state in America is represented with an act an acoustic and a band act, and then the Polish Blue Society, the London Blue Society, the Taiwan Blue Society. All these people send an act to compete and the only outsiders ever to win it Fiona myself, frank Sultana.
Cheryl Lee:That's no mean feat, is it? That is, australians showcasing our talent to the world. Well done.
Jimi Hocking:Thank you, and it's really one of the part of the prize is that you get put on a couple of the major festivals in the States. So I remember when I won. It's 20 years ago, of course, but I came back to Australia for a month or two. Then I went back to the States and I spent two months or maybe more touring as I bookended the festivals. They booked me on, so I did a quite a comprehensive tour of the States that year.
Cheryl Lee:What an amazing experience.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah, it was amazing, it really was amazing. And you're on the morning show. You're on like it's a big deal. You know they call you the unsigned blues artist of the year in America.
Cheryl Lee:Well, well done, done. We're very proud of you oh thank you. Still off my podcast with that radio chick, Cheryl Lee. I really do love this CD so much I'm just going to play my way through it. Next one is Ramblin' and then we're back to speak some more to Jimi the Human.
Cheryl Lee:11th Three Brothers Arms, 12th semaphore Workers and the 13th, our Murray Delta Juke Joint. No rest for the wicked.
Jimi Hocking:Well, if you're going to come to town, you might as well come to town.
Cheryl Lee:Exactly right. I was just going to say have you heard of our venue, Memphis Slims?
Jimi Hocking:Yes, I have, yeah, so you could sneak down there after. Are they open every night?
Cheryl Lee:Well, they're definitely open every night over the weekend.
Jimi Hocking:And quite often artists that play in town, you know, will head down there for the after party Because Dusty and those guys were all down there, right, I spoke to Dusty some time ago but we did manage to make a gig work. But I was there. Actually I did the Gov with a thing called the Blues Guitar Roadshow, about I don't know now, six weeks ago, yeah.
Cheryl Lee:I saw that.
Jimi Hocking:And that was great. That was a full house there and John McNamara who puts that together another great operator. He does a lot of work to make sure that gigs are going to happen, so that was great. This is probably a little less formal version of coming to Adelaide in some respects, but people have been saying to me for years how come I don't come to Adelaide? I work so much in Melbourne and even occasionally in Sydney. It's not that I'm ignoring Adelaide, I just didn't know where to go with it at the start.
Speaker 3:Well, I think you've got Ben now.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah.
Cheryl Lee:So it's just around the corner from me here in the city. If you've still got some energy left and feel like playing, we can see you down there with our Stefan Hauk. You know, stefan, I know Stefan.
Jimi Hocking:He appeared at the Blues Roadshow too. He's a killer guitar player, I know. Right, I nearly had to assassinate him on the spot too. He's too cool. I knew of Stefan. We'd met sort of through the online community and I was well aware of his talents, but it was the first time I really saw him play properly. I suppose you'd say, and yeah, he was just fantastic. But me and Gleeson were both there to see him. We loved it.
Cheryl Lee:He was really great, get onto bluesroulette. com. Catch when they're coming. These guys are coming to a town near you. If you're in Adelaide this weekend, you are spoilt for choice, and you can also grab the five, six, seven seeds. Well, you can grab five of them there where do we get these other two?
Jimi Hocking:these are well, they have them online. I don't know they're the kind of things they do a limited run of. I don't think they just keep them in stock all the time, so they do a run, then they do the next one. So I guess on the blues roulette website the merch page would be the place to check that out, I guess well, I feel very lucky then, because look this one, this one, it's even signed.
Cheryl Lee:It's even signed, love it. I was just going to ask you quickly what your favourite song and I know this is sort of like asking about a favourite child, I know but do you have a favourite song that you like? Playing with Blues Roulette.
Jimi Hocking:Well, I mean, the blues is the kind of form where there are many generic ideas and that's not a dirty word to me, that's just the way the language of the music style is.
Jimi Hocking:But you know, I love to play a slow blues but that's not always ideal for the audience. But if you were to ask me what my favourite song is, I mean I was very fortunate I met Mr BB King in the late 80s when he came to Australia and I hung out with him a little bit at the hotel. So that was a mind-altering moment in my life as a blues fan and he was everything you want him to be, you know. And so actually anytime I get to play a BB King song, I revisit that feeling and I sometimes play a song called Sweet 16, which is an old BB King song. Of course I've got a bunch of originals that I play, but one of my favourite blues songs of all time was BB's version of the Thrill Is Gone, which is arguably one of the first blues songs to sell online like a million copies in America. It was like a breakthrough moment for the genre. So the Thriller's Gone is probably one of my favourite songs of all time in the blues scene.
Cheryl Lee:Does that one appear on any of those CDs?
Jimi Hocking:I'm afraid it does not.
Cheryl Lee:Next time, next time.
Jimi Hocking:Well, you asked me what my favourite one. You didn't allude to what the CDs were all about. That's all right.
Cheryl Lee:on the next one.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah, yeah. And of course I've got a couple of albums which I my blues style on my original albums is a little bit tongue-in-cheek, you know, like it's not all doom and gloom. I like to write from a fun aspect, kind of like in the buddy guy sort of sense, which is a little bit more of a lighter upbeat, a little bit more of a lighter upbeat version of what could be a very gloomy subject matter sometimes.
Cheryl Lee:Well, that's right. Sometimes the blues can get a little bit dark. It can, and I love that.
Jimi Hocking:But I also I'm a fun kind of guy and I think that even when you're really hurting, sometimes being able to laugh at yourself is a great cathartic approach. So I write like that. I think there's a little bit of Frank Zappa in me, you see, that does human belonging. Music is always in the back of my mind, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, and even with the sads. I mean because country can be a little bit the same. You know, my dog died, the truck's broken down, the wife left. It's good if you can, somewhere in there, just find that a little bit of a silver lining.
Jimi Hocking:Yeah, I heard somebody say it's funny to say that I was teaching today and I was teaching some country licks, and I heard myself say something which somebody said to me years ago about country licks. They said there's two kinds of country songs You're either making them dance or you're making them cry, cry, nothing in between.
Cheryl Lee:You are listening to Still Rockin it, the podcast with Cheryl Lee. In the absence of Jimi Hocking's favourite BB King song, let's have the third one from the CD. This one's called Rock Me Baby. And then we're back to say goodbye to Jimi the Human Hocking from Blues Roulette.
Cheryl Lee:I just want to also ask you one more question because I've almost been harassing Dave Gleeson, your band mate, Dave.
Jimi Hocking:Dave, you can't get him on the phone. You've got to answer the phone to four people.
Cheryl Lee:What? And I'm not one of them. I just wondered are you going to be involved in his next?
Jimi Hocking:album. Oh yeah, he can't do it without me. What are you talking about?
Cheryl Lee:Exactly.
Jimi Hocking:I knew that Well when is it coming, jimi? I don't know. We've been workshopping this idea for the longest time and in recent times of course we lost our beloved brother Paul Wozeen. Course we lost our beloved brother, Paul was seen, but what that meant is we've now taken a lot of songs that we have been workshopping for Dave's album and actually seeing if any of them work in a Screaming Jets world as well. So there's a little bit of overlap happening right now behind the scenes in the experiment of songwriting.
Jimi Hocking:But I would say dave's been really keen to do a second album for quite a long time. That first first album, wanted man, we actually recorded at my studio in Victoria. It was going to be done at Thorpey Studio in Sydney but it all fell over the book and got double booked or something and we last minute did it at my place. So I would imagine we'll probably do the next one in Adelaide. That's what I imagine. I'll probably come over and we'll do it there, but it's just a matter of finding the time and squeezing it in between everything else.
Jimi Hocking:I know we're on the road right now, but we've still got lots of stuff going on behind the scenes and I would like to say soon though, I would like to do that project soon.
Cheryl Lee:I think I've asked him every time. I've seen him like the last half a dozen times, and I feel like he's like shut up, Cheryl.
Jimi Hocking:No, no, he really wants to do it. That's a labour of love for him because, even though you know, the Screaming Jets has been the biggest part of our lives musically for all these years, you know, dave in some way suffered from being in a band with such great songwriters like Paul, because that meant that Paul's songs were always the ones we worked up more immediately, because it was a natural for the band To some degree. Dave has written a lot of stuff that has not seen a lot of day, and it really should, so the solo album is really a great platform for him to express himself.
Cheryl Lee:It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.
Jimi Hocking:I say it will definitely happen.
Cheryl Lee:Awesome. Was there anything else, Jimi, that you wanted to mention today? Have we missed anything important?
Jimi Hocking:Nothing is springing to mind as far as Adelaide goes. We've covered doing the gigs and talking about Ben and the genesis of the thing. You're probably more aware with what I need to talk about than I am.
Cheryl Lee:Have you got a scoop for me? Is there any Screaming Jets news?
Jimi Hocking:There are festivals emerging throughout the year and I have non-confirmed dates now, looking at November, december for a run of dates. No one has talked about that yet. I'm sure there's a possibility. I'll get into trouble for saying that, but that's the discussion on my desk right now, so we're just waiting for a firm up of what venues will do. I'd say we'll probably tour over summer again and then maybe do one of those big tours again in the new year that I can't say the name of excellent.
Cheryl Lee:Well, I'm very excited about that yeah, so that's great.
Jimi Hocking:We it's been. It's been a a strange, weird and wonderful time for the band in the last year and a half. But I'm happy to say that I think we've all come to the same realization is that playing together is still a happy place and without that, you know, you know it would just be a foolish thing to walk away from anything that's still so good for us.
Cheryl Lee:You know, as people, and we, the punters, wouldn't be very happy either.
Jimi Hocking:It's really nice to hear that because you know we live in our own bubble when we do this thing from the inside out and even though you know, certainly I see that people appreciate and love the band, sometimes it's hard to see it in a real sense.
Cheryl Lee:I know that sounds a bit weird, I'm not trying to when you're in it and you've got your feet down and your bum up.
Jimi Hocking:I'm not fishing for affirmations, but when you're on the inside looking out, it's not the same as watching something unfold before your eyes, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Well, we're very excited about everything that's coming up. Do get onto the Blues Roulette website. Check out their dates. Check out their CDs. They're fabulous. I've been listening to them since my little packet arrived Great. We look forward to seeing you down the front at one of our big triple venues on the weekend.
Jimi Hocking:Fantastic. Thank you so much for your support, as always, cheryl, we really appreciate it.
Cheryl Lee:Thank you. Thanks for having a chat.
Jimi Hocking:No worries, enjoy the rest of your day, jimi.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, you too. Bye for now. Bye Still rocking the podcast with that radio chick, Cheryl Lee. Why stop now? From one of my favourite blues roulette CDs. This is the fourth and final song Sunshine of your Love, Stenland Dawn.