Press Releases

Joe Santana & The Motley Jackson Band Caught Live at Harbor Tavern

By Rick Gant

"Rick At Night"

Entertaining U Newspaper

Since the last time I crossed paths with Joe Santana, he and his "band of gypsies" have been relentlessly touring the country, booking gigs at clubs and biker festivals in Oklahoma, Sturgis, South Dakota, Daytona’s Bike Week, and many other biker venues across the country.

Yes, Joe Santana and Co. are wildly popular at biker events, as well as hardcore rock clubs like the Harbor Tavern on Mayport Road.

This hard rocking trio is still in tact since my last connection with this notable rock band. Joe Santana (a distant cousin of the Santana) plays a mean guitar and sings lead, Dan Graham plays drums, and Clyde Birbeck plays bass.

Together, this grizzled rock trio plays originals and selected covers with awesome musicianship, tightness, and style. At biker events, the JS&MJB plays biker favorites such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foghat, Rick Derringer, Styx, The Georgia Satellites, and George Thorogood, plus its original songs which are recorded on the bands CD which they sell from the stage.

The evolution of this amalgam began when Joe met Dan Graham at Sturgis. Dan was playing with Motley Jackson and Joe was fronting his own band Joe Santana and The Knockers. Dan lost his band. So, Dan and Joe joined forces as the JS&MJB outfit. Joe and Dan then picked up Clyde in New Hampshire. Also, Joe moved to Jacksonville as his permanent headquarters, but his real home is on the road.

"We’ve been touring continually since you covered us about a year ago right before Daytona’s Bike Week. At Sturgis, I hooked up with a documentary filmmaker and the band appears in the documentary about Sturgis titled One Million Motorcycles, now available on DVD."

"Lately we’ve been playing more blues clubs and rock venues. We are still an independent band hawking our original CD and booking our own gigs. We like to stay busy and work hard. That’s what the rock’n’roll lifestyle is all about," Joe said.

Joe Santana’s original songs are sometimes funny but catchy ditties with titles like Road Dog, The Bullet Left The Gun, Camel Toe (about something unmentionable) Muleskinner Blues, Phoenix, Tears in Your Eyes, I Love My Baby, and A Rose Tattoo.

Clearly, this is a roots rock band that revs up the bikers and rockers to party like its 2005, and let it all hang out. At the Harbor Tavern the JS&MJB is a great fit, since the club attracts bikers and rockers. Harbor’s owner, Dresser Dan runs a tight ship and keeps the place clean and the atmosphere positive. As my regular readers know, Harbor is one of my favorite haunts and a great place to cover rock bands.

The JS&MJB is one of those groups on the brink of greatness, working hard and making a living out on the rock highway where many unsung heroes have traveled and gone from nowhere to oblivion. But Joe and Co. love the lifestyle and that’s what fuels their rock engine.

Being seasoned road dogs, this band presents a high standard of musicianship. Joe is a versatile guitarist who can play anything in any style. If one listens carefully to Joe’s soloing, one can hear that Joe’s solos are intelligently structured and framed within the context of the song he is playing. This upper tier playing comes from performing umpteen gigs down the road and playing a wide variety of music.

Joe and Co. have carved out a viable niche in the biz by booking gigs at the various biker events and playing club gigs in between. This gives them a hot market to sell their product to an appreciative audience. Hey, it beats scrounging for gigs in one town.

Obviously, the road is where it’s at for all artists, regardless of their status in the music biz hierarchy. Even the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney are touring this summer. Rock’n’roll is mobile, bubba!

06\17\2005 through 06\26\2005
Sparks America's Bike Week Oklahoma

Sparks, OK
Sponsored by : Tony Ward
Here is the GIG, Will call tickets, {means will call for in person upon arrival} are available now, $100.00 for 10 days, $50.00 for the first or second half. Day passes will be available at the gate only, for $15. Day passes do not include camping and are good until 8 am the following day. For every ticket purchased in advance you will get 1 chance in a drawing for either, 100-tickets for full party, or 50-tickets for 1/2 party, of the $5.00 donation tickets on the 883 Custom being given away by the Maria Ward Foundation, on Saturday June 25th, need not be present to win. For information on the foundation go to www.mariawardfoundation.com Budweiser and Bud Light, $1.00 per can. Black Oak Arkansas is booked for the 18th and 20th . Joe Santana and the Motley Jackson Band is booked for the 22nd, 24th and 26th. The Southern Rock Allstars are booked for the 25th. And many great local bands will be playing throughout the event. There will be two Bike Shows, Sun. the 19th and Sat. the 25th. We will be having bike and people games every day with Sunday services on the 19th and 26th. A special gig is \"No Panty Wednesday\". It will be interesting!!!! We will be doing the same thing through out the entire party as we did at all of the previous one\'s, so when you decide to come you will not miss out on anything! The ten day's is to make it more convenient for the people that cannot make a weekend party, and are coming a long distance, as well as the close neighbors, so they can fit it into their busy schedule. 60 plus vendors, for every thing you might need or want, including 10 food vendors. There's also no shortage of good food either. Normally rally chow leaves a little to be desired, but I actually enjoy eating at Sparks and am always impressed with the variety. Val Berry, Wide Open Magazine. We will learn more after this one and improve on what we can with your help. Hot SHOWERS, CLEAN POTTIES, lots of SHADE, Very Clean Park on Private Property, No Police, Great Community support, and Ton's of great entertainment, make this the best party in the Midwest HANDS DOWN must see to believe!
Additional information available at:
Email: tony@sparksamerica.com
Phone: (918) - 866 - 2543
WebSite: http://www.sparksamerica.com

Joe Santana & Motley Jackson Band Revved Up Bikers at Harbor Tavern

BY RICK GRANT

Entertaining U Newspaper

On their way to Daytona for Bike Week to perform a series of eighteen gigs, Joe Santana & Motley Jackson Band stopped by the Harbor Tavern last Friday night to rev up the bikers headed to the mother of all motorcycle soirees in Daytona, where the term "jugs" has double meaning.

Yes, for me it was deja vu—an encore visit to the Harbor Tavern to check out this legendary touring band. And, I wasn’t disappointed. This group of grizzled road dogs has been touring the biker bar circuit and other rock venues for many years.

Joe Santana leads this amalgam on lead guitar and vocals with Dan Graham on drums and vocals, Clyde Birbeck on bass and vocals. These cats can groove with seasoned skill. Joe has a great blues rock voice and carries the band with his advanced technique.

On drums, Dan Graham is a groove machine who also sings and has a permanent savvy smile indicating that playing the drums is fun and he can’t believe he’s getting paid to do it.

Bassist Clyde Birback is steeped in funk and grooves as a bottom end engine with the drummer Dan.

Dan and Joe met at Sturgis, South Dakota where the biggest and most prestigious biker bash happens. Dan was playing with Motley Jackson and Joe was playing with Joe Santana and the Knockers. When Dan lost some musicians, he called Joe to join forces, and Joe Santana and The Motley Jackson Band was born. They picked up Clyde in New Hampshire.

Together this group plays on a high level of tightness that only years on the road can achieve. Joe said that they play many biker functions across the country along with biker favorites Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foghat, Rick Derringer, Styx, Georgia Satellites, and George Thorogood. All these name bands are booked for Biker Week www.bikerweek.com in Daytona.

"We play many biker bars and events but we also play blues clubs and other venues. We are one of the few independent bands still on the road with our self produced CD. We like to keep it simple and real with a scaled down PA and no extra crap," Joe said.

Joe Santana and Co. are the type of band that hovers of the fringe of big time recognition, and are legendary among niche audiences like the loyal biker community. Jim Thackery played with the Nighthawks for twenty-five years and recorded fourteen albums with them. Jim went out on has own as a blues artist about eight years ago. This was a band similar to Joe Santana’s outfit. They were the Rolling Stones to the biker community.

Joe Santana and Motley Jackson plays a clever blend of originals and classic rock. The group’s original songs are catchy hits waiting to happen like Road Dog, The Bullet Left the Gun, Camel Toe, Muleskinner Blues, Phoenix, Tears in Your Eyes, I Love My Baby, and A Rose Tattoo.

When Joe and Co. crank up the Motley Jackson engine, they roar like a Harley on steroids, yet they can play ballads like Dock on The Bay with sensitive dynamics. It’s a lean mean rocking machine that revs up the bikers and rockers with 100 proof rock’n’roll moonshine.

Joe and Motley Jackson will be playing gigs down at Bike Week which runs Feb. 27th through March 7 at the Cabbage Patch Thurs and Friday Feb 26 -28 and Broken Spoke and No Name Saloon on Sunday, Feb 29th. Then they rock the Last Resort and No Name Saloon Mar. 1st, Broken Spoke Mar. 2, Cabbage Patch and No Name Saloon Mar. 3rd. Then the band plays Broken Spoke through Mar. 6 and at No Name Saloon Mar. 7.