Review: Popa Chubby 'Emotional Gangster'

Popa Chubby

By Mike O’Cull

New York’s world-renowned blues king Popa Chubby is back and ready to blast on his new record Emotional Gangster. The set busts out March 18th, 2022 on Dixiefrog Records and, as you’d expect, features our man Popa in every bit of his guitar slinging, songwriting, and in-your-face, full-frontal, performing glory. Chubby also handled all of the production, recording, and mixing chores personally at his own Chubbyland studio facility, a cool move that allowed him to be even more of himself than ever before, completely free of restraint. Harmonica boss Jason Ricci appears on two tracks and adds his own style and flavor to them. The album that came out of these sessions is a wild, rambunctious ride through Chubby’s chops and personality that recalls the fun of The Before Times and a pure love of the blues.

Popa Chubby, a.k.a. Ted Horowitz, has been blowing minds and wowing crowds with the blues since the mid-1990s. He’s a native New Yorker who started life in the city’s punk scene, doing his first gigs with what he describes as a “crazy Japanese special effects performance artist in a kimono called Screaming Mad George who had a horror-movie inspired show.” He learned early on that rock should be theatrical and authentically dangerous, wisdom gleaned from his days in the CBGB scene around bands including the Ramones, the Cramps, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the latter of which he became a member of.

When he began playing blues, Popa Chubby did it the same way. “I understood that the blues should be dangerous, too,” he relates. “It wasn’t just from playing in punk bands. Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters were dangerous men. They’d cut or shoot you if they thought it was necessary, and Little Walter packed a gun and wouldn’t hesitate to use it.” Popa channels that same street-level feeling into everything he does, using his music to communicate directly to the world and to fearlessly speak his piece about everything from love to politics. He’s everything you’d imagine a heavy-duty, NYC blues artist to be and then some.

From the moment Popa launches into the opener “Tonight I’m Gonna Be The Man,” he rolls like a two-mile train. His slide playing is hot and on-point, his vocals are gruff and immediate, and his lyrics reflect the influence of master songwriters like Willie Dixon and Chuck Berry. Chubby is just as good with his words as he is with his guitar and he uses that talent to create roots music that’s true to form and still relevant to modern fans.

“New Way Of Walking” is a heavy blues/rock track that will punch right through your drywall. Chubby’s rhythm playing snaps and cracks, his leads wail, and Jason Ricci’s harp takes this one ever skyward. All of these fireworks happen over a boisterously shuffling beat with a barbed wire edge that pushes the tune relentlessly forward. It’s the kind of “Muddy meets Motörhead” sound that Chubby has built his world upon and you’re going to want to hear it loud.

The lighthearted and bawdy “Equal Opportunity” is one of Emotional Gangster’s most entertaining moments. It’s a celebration of women the world over, all of whom Chubby would be down to share some horizontal refreshment with, done in a delightfully naughty way. Musically, Popa melds slide guitar and a slight hip-hop vibe together to make this one a new-school mid-tempo boneshaker. Don’t miss it.

Chubby makes the funky “Why You Wanna Make War” twice as nice by including two versions of it on the album, one in English and one in French. No matter the language he uses, his slide playing is righteous and universally understood. Popa also covers the classics “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Dust My Broom” as a show of respect to the creators of the blues and does a fine job with both. Emotional Gangster is the contemporary blues record the world needs right now. Popa Chubby shows true individualism, reverence for tradition, and a willingness to push roots music forward on every cut on it like the iconoclast he is. Expect this to go big.

Watch “Equal Opportunity” Thanks to Don Odell