Premiere: Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers find a “Good Day For The Blues”

No Good Deed CD rocks us good

L-R: Rodney Lee, Randy Jacobs, Mindi Abair, Ben White, Third Richardson.

Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers’ diverse musical backgrounds come to the fore with their third album, No Good Deed. Their original material’s blend of rock, jazz and blues is peppered here with cleverly reworked covers of songs from the Rascals, Etta James and others—no doubt a first.

Going into the studio, the band didn’t overthink things, let inspiration and adrenaline lead them, and completed the album in only five days, at legendary EastWest Studios in Hollywood. “It’s really the way that we love to make records,” said saxophonist and lead vocalist Mindi Abair. “We’re all in the studio at the same time and we want to capture that energy, that chemistry. Sometimes you can lose it after playing through a song too many times.”

About this cut, Abair told Elmore, “’Good Day For The Blues’ is a deceptively upbeat song about the times when love drifts and it’s a good day to sink into the blues. It’s a feel-good song about a not so feel-good subject. It was originally recorded by a band called Storyville. Their lead singer Malford Milligan was the lead singer for The Boneshakers for many years. He’s a good friend of the band, and as Randy always says, ‘Once a Boneshaker, always a Boneshaker!’ We always thought it was a big hit and a great song, so we decided to do our own version of it.”

L-R: Third Richardson, Randy Jacobs, Mindi Abair, Ben White, Rodney Lee.; Photo: Chyrisse Tybone

The Boneshakers are Randy Jacobs (guitar and vocals), Rodney Lee (keys), Ben White (bass, vocals) and Third Richardson (drums, vocals), with and lead vocalist and award-winning saxophonist Mindi Abair. With two Grammy nominations and eight records to her credit, Abair has toured extensively with Aerosmith and Duran Duran, among others.