Gimme 5 - The Jujubes tell us what gets their mojos working

London-based band The Jujubes are purveyors of a stripped-back blues sound that leans towards the dark and mysterious, as shown by their recently released second album Raging Moon.  But what kind of stuff gets the trio of Nikki Brookes (vocals), Sandy Michie (guitar) and Pete Sim (guitar and harmonica) all hot and bothered?  Now's their chance to tell all, as they share 5 songs that have pricked up their ears lately, 5 artists who have given them inspiration, and 5 characters they'd love to get round the table for a long lunch.  Let's get the party started, Jujube people!

The Jujubes take us Through The Keyhole

Gimme 5 songs, old or new, that have been on your radar recently.

  
‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ by Junior Parker:  “From the album Love Ain’t Nothin’ But A Business Goin’ On.  Just a stunning, unexpected minimal cover. I wonder how this came to fruition? It’s so different from the original Beatles version and works in its own right.”
 
‘Rollin’ Stone’ by Johnny Jenkins:  “From the album Ton-Ton Macoute!  Anything with Duane Allman playing slide is going to be great. Again another minimal production with some tasteful Dobro licks, playing for the song not for himself. Released in 1970 just as the Allman Brothers were about to go big.” 
 
‘Hard To Stay Cool’ by Cedric Burnside:  “From the album Benton Country Relic.  We saw Cedric live at what was then Dingwalls in Camden and were blown away by his performance. We became complete fans buying the album at the gig and getting pics with him. This track captures what he’s all about; cool, stripped back blues just the way we like it.”
 
‘Anyone Who Knows What Love Is’ by Irma Thomas:  “From the [compilation album] Straight From The Soul*.  We got to know this song from the TV show Black Mirror. It gets right under your skin. The most beautiful ballad with a haunting understated vocal.”
 
‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’ by The Civil Wars:  “From the album Barton Hollow.  Can’t

The glorious Rory Gallagher

remember how we came across this version of Leonard Cohen’s song from the now disbanded folk country duo recently. You can imagine Robert Plant and Alison Krauss doing this. One of those songs you wish you had written.”
 
 
Gimme 5 artists or bands who have had a big influence on your work.
 
Rory Gallagher:  Rory is Pete’s big influence.  “My friend Ned Carty (an amazing guitarist from Limavady) introduced me to Rory Gallagher many, many, many years ago. The intensity, no prisoners taken approach coupled with an incredible technical ability along with a mastery of acoustic guitar, harmonica and mandolin made me want to be like him when I grew up! I’m still trying. If there was a living embodiment of the blues outside of America, it would be Rory.”
 
John Lee Hooker:  “Nikki’s dad was a Blues obsessive and took her to see John Lee Hooker when she was little. Seeing him, sat with just a guitar holding an audience captive made a big impact on her. When we started The Jujubes, getting back to the real, raw roots of the blues was something that all three of us really wanted to try and do.”
 
Jack White:  “Sandy and Nikki heard ‘Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground’ by The White Stripes on the radio when they were trying to create their own Blues-based band many years ago, and

They don't make 'em like Marlene any more

became obsessed by Jack White.  If Howlin’ Wolf was alive, we think Jack is the guy he would love to play with. His choice of guitars, his choice of guitar sounds, his incredible detail on every aspect of the look and feel of any project he does is very inspiring, and he performs and plays like a demon.”

Marlene Dietrich:  Ms Dietrich is Nikki’s big influence.  “Seeing a woman in a man’s suit with a vocal that sounded so world weary and strangely disinterested completely captivated Nikki as a child and really influenced her on the type of performer she wanted to be. She was so far removed from the typical image of a woman at the time. Androgenous, strong, in control and no desire to please anyone.”  [How about an earful of Marlene's world-weary crooning?  Why not?  Here she is with 'The Laziest Girl In Town', from the Hitchcock movie Stage Fright.]
 
The Beatles:  The Mop Tops are Sandy’s big influence.  “Every day is a Beatles day as far as Sandy is concerned.  It was like the world turned from black and white into colour when he heard them as a child growing up in Scotland and made him want to pick up the guitar and be in a band.  Their ability and desire to constantly learn and create really inspired him and still does. That love of being able to create something with other likeminded musicians and then connect with the audience has never diminished for him however hard and frustrating it’s been at times.”
 
 
Gimme 5 guests you’d love to invite to your ideal long lunch.
 
Buddy Guy:  “Probably the last living connection to Chicago blues. Imagine the stories he could tell you about finding his way, playing with Son House and Muddy Waters, recording at Chess, the blues revival in the 80s, it would be a long lunch!”

Brian Cox, keyboard playing physicist

Professor Brian Cox:  “To be able to listen to him answer all the questions about the universe that make your brain hurt, would be fascinating. From his past as a musician, he could then have a jam with us – a perfect combo.”
 
Irvine Welsh: “Known for being sweary and straight talking he would be a great addition to keep the conversation alive. We can’t imagine there is a topic which he wouldn’t have an opinion on.”
 
Nigel Kennedy:  “He is a true original, recently pulling out of playing at the Royal Albert Hall as his choice of wanting to play Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’ in a Celtic style of Ralph Vaughan Williams was snubbed by the concert organisers. Like Irvine he is not afraid to express his views and has a sharp wit.”             
 
Jane Fonda:  “If anyone could hold court its Jane Fonda.  With an intriguing past of movie star to activist, sparks would fly with some great political debates with them all.”
 
 
Just one track – pick one of your tracks that you’d share with a new listener to introduce your music.
 
“Our pick is ’John the Revelator’, from our first album Where Are We Now. It’s one that shows our love of the blues but hopefully with our own stamp on it, bringing it in to the present without losing its roots. I’m slightly obsessed with the tempo of songs,” says Nikki, “and had a very clear idea of wanting it to be really slow. It nearly drove Sandy and Pete mad when we recorded it but they begrudgingly had to admit I was right in the end!”

Find out more about The Jujubes on their website, here.

*In the interests of completeness, 'Anyone Who Knows What Love Is' was originally released as a single in 1964, with 'Time On My Side' on the B-side, and then featured on Irma Thomas's second album Take A Look in 1966.

The Jujubes - Raging Moon

A bit of googling reveals that jujubes are “the edible berrylike fruit of a Eurasian plant, formerly taken as a cure for coughs”, which ain’t yer typical Midnight Moonshine moniker for a blues outfit.  Appropriately so, because if Siouxsie Sioux had ever had a notion to make a stripped back blues album, it might have turned out something like Raging Moon.  And this is a good thing.
I’m kidding, right?  Well yeah, a bit.  I mean, vocalist Nikki Brooks doesn’t sound doomy and Gothic like ol’ Siouxsie.  But her cooing voice does have a slightly unsettling undertone, in keeping with the trio’s edgy, off-kilter blues sound.

The Jujubes get down and get with it.

They’re so minimalist that the other two geezers don’t even have surnames.*  There’s Sandy, who plays guitar.  And there’s Pete, who plays harmonica and guitar.  But together The Jujubes make a damn good job of producing something fresh and interesting with so little.  The opening ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ is a case in point, delivered without the heft of Howlin’ Wolf or Koko Taylor but with a constant air of tension, starting with guitar that’s rhythmically picked at, later gatecrashed by some slashing chords – although every time it sounds like letting go, they pull it back and keep you guessing, right down to the unorthodox sounding percussion.  They swing a bit more on ‘You Ain’t So Bad’, with some quivering toots of harp and nimble exchanges of guitar breaks, and Brooks cutting loose vocally, but it still feels like someone trying out a blues set in a dingy CBGBs circa 1975.
‘True Religion’ goes back to Lead Belly and probably beyond, but here sounds like it’s been reimagined somewhere outlandishly European, like Albania maybe, with Brooks crooning edgily against a backdrop of intermingled guitars.  Her voice is then given a muted effect on ‘The Last Thing’, over a nagging, hypnotic rhythm and a throbbing deep down riff from one of the guitars, with interjections of a familiar sounding, spiky guitar motif.  The overall effect is like blood dripping off the edge of a gleaming knife.  Or something.
‘High Fever Blues’ comes with a near-whispered a cappella intro, progressing with sparse acoustic strumming and some ghostly twangs of slide, before some nifty, steely guitar breaks turn it into something that Bukka White might recognise.  Bessie Smith’s ‘Devil’s Gonna Get You’, meanwhile, is tense and urgent with a thudding percussive beat that eventually bursts into a boom-shta-ta-shtum rhythm overlaid by squawking harp and some deeply discordant guitar, while Brooks gets decidedly agitated at the mic.
She goes back to slow and stealthy on the macabre-sounding ‘Make Me Cry’, to the accompaniment of shivering, twanging, prickling guitars.  But the closing ‘Something More’ feels like there’s a break in the clouds, with some simple but lovely acoustic strumming, and wafts of slide guitar notes carried in on the breeze to join Brooks’ swooning vocal.
I wonder what blues traditionalists will make of all this.  Some of the stuff here feels old and bluesy enough to have been exhumed from a shallow grave at a Mississippi crossroads.  But at the same time it’s all imbued with a very modern, knowing sense of direction.  Raging Moon is a confident, very well executed album, which caught me unawares.  But you know the score now, dear reader.  The Jujubes deserve your attention - and I mean right now.
 
Raging Moon is released on 17 September, and can be ordered here.

*Actually this isn't true at all.  They're called Sandy Michie and Pete Sim.  But I didn't have that info when I first wrote the review - and anyway, it was a good line!  And guesting on percussion was a fella called OC Thomas, by the way.