Word on the Street (Press)

"These cats are the best young blues band in the country."
-Billy Flynn

"The Cash Box Kings can lay down old-school Chicago blues as good as any band out there right now."
-Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin

"Stylistically the effect of the music parallels coming home from a trip to Maxwell Street with a box of dusty 45s and 78s on labels like Ora-Nelle, Blue Lake, Parrot or Cobra - rough and tumble, meat and potatoes Chicago blues."
-Dick Shurman

"Playing with the Cash box Kings is the most fun I've had in 20 years!'
-Hubert Sumlin

"Has all the unpretentious fun of a bar band at 2 AM, but it also has that extra freshness and energy that lifts a band out of the realm of the ordinary. The Cash Box Kings post-war style isn't a gimmick. This band is going places."
-Genevieve Williams Blues Revue

"This is music that preserves the shot-and-a-beer sexual fire and joyously dirty-assed sound production of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor without succumbing to museum piece imitation."
-Tom Laskin, The Isthmus

"A revelation... these guys are so talented it makes you think back to the times when blues music was still strong and vital. For those questioning whether the blues is still alive... here is your answer."
-Blues & Co. (France)

"These guys have obviously listened and learned. I love their stripped-down, paint-scorching approach to the Blues. The Cash Box Kings get my personal seal of approval."
-Brian Williams Blues Freepress (UK)

"Far too many classic blues outfits stick to what can be considered a list of Top 40 Blues Hits, but these guys dig into the catalogs of John Brim, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Johnny Young, Tommy Johnson and others, delivering a sound steeped in seasoning."
-Craig Ruskey Blues on Stage

Dick Shurman on the "Royal Treatment" album:

With The Royal Treatment the Cash Box Kings continue and strengthen their breakout from the Midwestern blues bar circuit to international recognition as recording and performing artists. Notice is duly served that they are ready for inclusion among the illustrious torch bearers for not one but two proud blues traditions. With a deep commitment to those roots and a freshness which has generated nine originals on this CD, the Cash Box Kings are starting to make their own mark.

The Cash Box Kings have been passionate exponents of vintage Chicago and Delta blues from their inception. That happened after a 2000 event in Madison, Wisconsin where former Chicagoan vocalist, harp player and guitarist Joe Nosek crossed paths with Janesville, Wisconsin native singer-guitarist Travis Koopman and highly regarded and impeccably pedigreed Chicago drummer Kenny Smith (son of Muddy's longtime drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith). Koopman describes the meeting, "I had almost decided to hang up the guitar when I met Joe and Kenny at a Billy Boy Arnold show. The love and appreciation for the music was evident between us. When Chris Boeger, the greatest bass player I know, agreed to be a 'King,' the formula was complete." The group dedicated itself to those timeless Windy City and Mississippi blues sounds, fashioning a gritty ensemble-based evocation of Chess, Sun, Muddy, Robert Johnson and Nighthawk and other historical bulwarks, driven by Nosek's Chicago-styled harp work, Koopman's incisive slide and fretted picking and a democratic approach to vocals, even including Kenny Smith (though not on this CD.)

Since its genesis, the group has progressed to bring its wild, raucous live show to the major blues hot spots in Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Minneapolis, started making the European rounds (thanks in part to Smith's connections there) and seen reviews of its first two CDs in a widening array of blues publications. Clearly the band is on an upward arc in its ongoing quest to keep the Chicago blues torch burning brightly.

It's clear via The Royal Treatment that the years, hard work and miles are paying off. The outing was recorded live without monitors or headphones on a single February, 2006 afternoon in Chicago at the ambient, high-ceilinged Electrical Audio Studio. "We did it the 'old fashioned way' and took the 'live in the studio' approach which is unique by today's standards," says Smith. According to Nosek, "We tried to make a record that was as 'real' and 'organic' sounding as possible and placed great emphasis on ensemble playing. When we make music, we focus on playing as a cohesive unit. We really listen and try to feel what each of us is playing when we play - we never try to outdo or upstage each other. That's what we wanted to convey with this record. And thanks in large part to Mark Haines' recording technique and approach, we think we achieved that. We feel that this recording is our best effort yet and we're very proud of the results." Those results consist of thirteen evenly allotted vocals and a Nosek instrumental feature. The program has a goodly share of rousing solo work such as Nosek on his own "The Low Roller" and Koopman on "New Boogie Woogie Baby" and his self-penned "Life Is Tough," but it really is about teamwork, interaction, convergences, weaving lines together and the song. Koopman contributes three compositions, Nosek six. Stylistically the effect parallels coming home from a trip to Maxwell Street with a box of dusty 45s and 78s on labels like Ora-Nelle, Blue Lake, Parrot or Cobra - rough and tumble, meat and potatoes Chicago blues, with far more substance than pretension. Pianist Ken Saydak adds his usual quality contribution to three tracks, again in what is very much an ensemble context.

As they continue their rounds of Midwestern interstates and occasional trans-Atlantic flights, the Cash Box Kings promise a lot more in the years ahead. The ongoing attrition of the milieu they venerate only increases their motivation and sense of purpose. According to Nosek, "We are all very dedicated to carrying on the musical traditions of the post-war Chicago blues era. All of us, especially Kenny, who literally grew up at the feet of the originators like Muddy, Cotton, and Jimmy Rogers, feel really passionate about keeping this music alive. We recognize that the audience for this type of music is shrinking, especially with people from our generation. That's why, despite the struggle, we're still trying to bring this music to the general public. We're also starting to do more musical educational programs and workshops about the blues for young kids around the Midwest with the hope that we can make a musical connection with people at an early age." Smith sums up the Kings' mission by saying, "We want to preserve classic blues music. We're just trying to carry it on." In "Daddy Bear Blues," Nosek talks about ranging from Milwaukee to Ohio. The Royal Treatment provides a joyous opportunity for longtime and new blues lovers of any age and places in between and a lot further afield to make the connection, and be glad of it.

Write-up from Tom Laskin, The Isthmus

Back in the mid-'70s, you could still see the best of the Chicago bluesmen in the strangest places. They played clubs and festivals and college joints, of course. But from time to time, you could also catch them at homecoming dances, makeshift coffee houses or a modest park shelter. In fact, Muddy Waters played the linoleum-floored rec room in the basement of my high school. It cost about $5 to get in, a twentysomething teacher dressed in a corduroy jacket and creased blue jeans was the sole chaperone, and the cool older kids primed the pump with wine skins filled with Boone's Farm Apple Wine and MD 20/20.

Waters didn't play much. Maybe 20 minutes sandwiched between the band's long introduction and brief boogieing outro. But he kicked off his portion of the set with a metallic, speaker-scratching slide solo that was so sly, so rough-and-ready that it changed my appreciation for what amplified music could be about.

Joe Nosek and Travis Koopman, the front men and main songwriters for the Cash Box Kings, obviously had similar eureka moments. Along with bassist Chris Boeger and drummer Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith, they effortlessly capture the power and muscular humanity of classic postwar Chicago blues on stages around the Midwest and across the big pond.

Even better, the Madison-based quartet translates the spirits of Waters, Little Walter, Robert Johnson and other blues giants into quality recordings that rely on feel rather than studio trickery to make an impression. It's a pure approach that serves them especially well on The Royal Treatment, their third and best CD to date. Recorded by Mark Haines over a single day at Chicago's Electrical Audio studios, the CD finds the foursome so at ease with themselves and their material that all 15 tracks flow together like a live set in the most intimate bar room. You can hear every idiosyncratic snap of Smith's snare drum head on Nosek's smoldering strut "The Low Roller," every quavering guitar string on Koopman's deliciously woozy intro to Waters' "Gypsy Woman." I could swear, every now and then, that you can even hear the light thwap of shoe leather as band members tap their feet in time with the music.

Intimate and energetic, this is the kind of disc that creates a palpable atmosphere, a believable sense of place. And with luck, maybe someday a young kid will hear Koopman's intro to "Gypsy Woman" or Nosek's sweet, wistful harmonica work on "Lou & Roxie's Rhumba" and come to realize in a flash that music -- even popular music -- can be about far more than slick lyrics, by-the-numbers beats and digitally enhanced power chords.