South Island Rhythm Kings - Still That Way Today (2022)

South Island Rhythm Kings are a 5-piece Blues band from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, steeped in traditional early Blues. At the nucleus of the South Island Rhythm Kings is Father/Son team of Lazy Mike Mallon and Carson Mallon creating a musical bond on early Electric Blues. With their good friends, and longtime collaborators, Dan Dube, Nick Dokter, and joining the group for the recording of “Still That Way Today”, legendary Bluesman, Jack Lavin, Bass, and producing.

The band formed in 2018 from their mutual love of “no school like old school” Blues. Their unique brand of entertainment delivers Classic Electric Blues with engaging, high energy & beautiful harmonies that makes you feel the music and get up and groove. South Island Rhythm Kings have had the pleasure of opening for such iconic bands as Harpdog Brown, Mark Hummel and the Lone Star Golden State Review, David Gogo, Big Dave Mclean, and Jim Byrnes plus many more.

It has been said the blues is a language we all speak. From an empty wallet to a cold side of the expressions, or the dialects, that vary from region to region; the searing slide guitar of the Mississippi Delta, the swamp-ridden Louisiana Blues, the uptown horn arrangements of Texas and the West Coast, the soul-stirring electrified harmonica from Chicago. These sounds have gone on to influence the world of music for decades. It is from these traditions that the South Island Rhythm Kings draw their inspiration. Currently, the band has completed their new album, "Still That Way Today".

In a modern world of digital excess, this is a group of musicians who present a repertoire of real-deal blues music. You will not find any meaningless virtuosity on this recording, only the pure expression of blues being reared on the stretch of Highway 1 from Nanaimo down to Victoria. “This is the blues of Vancouver Island”.

"The theme of this album is generally what we are all about, we love and listen to classic early 50’s and 60’s electric blues, so basically all of our music is our homage to the music we love. I have never been one to write about politics, or protest, I like to keep it light and in the same vein as early blues themes. We are “Still That Way Today”.

In keeping with that theme, we recorded the album (as we have for our past two albums), live off the floor with only a few overdubs, to capture that raw, live feel. Once again we recorded at Sean Kilback’s “Lo-Speed Studio” in Duncan BC. Sean engineered, mixed and mastered this album, and we were excited, and honoured to have our good friend, and legendary bluesman Jack Lavin playing bass, and producing the album.

Of the 13 songs on the album, I wrote 7. Some of the ideas that I have been working on for a couple of years (I’m Getting’ Old, I Live out in the Country), and others that came to me in a couple of hours (Still that Way Today, Sweet Potato Pie).

There are so many really good, but obscure old blues tunes, we chose some obscure, some not so...yet tunes that we chose carefully that conveyed our style of blues." ~Lazy Mike Mallon