Lazy Eye - Whisky & Gin (2019)

Personnel:
Evan Whetter - Vocals, Hammond
Erica Graf - Guitar & Backing Vocals
Mario Marino - Drums & Backing Vocals
Dustan Cox - Tenor Saxophone
Josh Chenoweth - Trumpet
Alex Taylor - Trombone

Think B.B. King sharing a scotch with Booker T at the crossroads after midnight.

With more awards than you can poke a mojo hand at, what started as a hair-brained idea between two friends medicating their way through jazz school over a bottle of red has taken them on an adventure that spans the globe. A multitude of gongs suggest Lazy Eye delivers some of the best original blues Australia has to offer.

All has not been smooth sailing for the Adelaide band however. While broken down on the side of the highway in their well-worn tour van, Lazy Eye learned they had been named Group Of The Year at the 2015 Australian Blues Music Awards... where they were due to perform! But regional Australia, where the act cut their teeth is a long way from the famed B.B. Kings Blues Club in Memphis where they played to a packed house just one year later.

When talking about their latest album Whisky & Gin, guitarist and founding member Erica Graf explains "It's a rent party... the 1920s may have been roaring for some, but in Harlem times were tough. People got creative, hiring blues and jazz bands to play at their house. The money raised by passing the hat around would pay the band and hopefully the rent." Graf continues, "The album opens with the title track 'Whisky & Gin", about just such an occasion; 'With a whisky and a gin, everybody's welcome in...'".