Bubs McKeg, finalist in the International Song Writers’ Competition in Norway, finalist in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, local musician and Blues Society member, is starting a series of blues workshops at Hope Academy today. He will help the HAT Co band write and orchestrate a blues song that will be incorporated in their public appearances this spring.
Bubs McKeg is a blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. His powerful and soulful voice, matched with his finger-picking guitar style, creates a blues experience quite unlike any other. Bubs started out onto the Pittsburgh music scene in the ’60s with “The Igniters.” Behind the “Rascals” the Igniters became only the second white band ever signed to Atlantic Records. Two singles were released, and then the band split up. After a few years of various bar bands, Bubs linked up with old band mate Norman Nardini and started “Diamond Reo” (no, not the country band). Diamond Reo signed a contract with “Big Tree” records, a subsidiary of Atlantic, and they were back in the record business. Bubs can be heard singing lead on the band’s only top 40 hit, “Ain’t That Peculiar,” a remake of the Marvin Gaye hit. After leaving Diamond Reo, Bubs recorded another top 40 hit, “Gimme Some,” for Buddah and later recorded on Phantom Records under the name “McKeg” until hooking up with James Lawson. “McKeg Lawson” became a well known blues name in the Pittsburgh blues scene, but in 1994 James Lawson lost a battle with cancer. Bubs kept the band going under the same name for five more years. Since that time he has been gigging under his own name and recording some of his best work.