April 18, 2015 Chris Spector Midwest Record 830 W. IL. Route 22 #144 Lake Zurich, IL., 60047 www.midwestrecord.com www.myspace.com/midwestrecord JOE & VICKI PRICE/Night Owls:  A husband and wife that sound like they like each other is a pretty big event right there.  About the music this duo makes?  It doesn’t get any more duo than this, they both pick guitar formidably with the heavy lifting done by Joe while Vicki does the heavy lifting on vocals sounding like a thrush from a speakeasy on the wrong side of town in the 1920s.  Serving up blues based roots music throughout, this is one of those little treasures we’ve been hiding out here in the heartland waiting for the rest of you to catch up with to hear what white people with the blues in Iowa can deliver.  A really great, heartfelt diversion from the mainstream.  Check it out. Made with Casual Care: Joe & Vicki Price, “Night Owls” River City Reader Written by Jeff Ignatius Wednesday, 29 April 2015 08:29 The new album from the northeast-Iowa blues duo Joe & Vicki Price is called Night Owls, and the cartoonish cover art (by Vicki) features five literally skeletal figures (including a man and woman each with a guitar and amp). The title couldn’t be more appropriate, as the 10-track collection of originals often has the casual feel of a post-midnight jam – intimate, a little on the sleepy side, wholly devoid of self-consciousness. Just two people performing with their guitars, voices, and feet. The sound is similarly straightforward, unadorned, and unfussy, and some tunes feel so dusty that they’re only missing the pops, crackles, and hisses of neglected vinyl or degraded tape. Even though the album was recorded in Nashville, the production is largely (and intentionally) artless. Yet despite the cheeky cover illustration and lightly electrified tunes that might as well be 60 years old, there’s a real vitality in the duo’s songs (written, with the exception of “Bones,” separately) – and the recordings. The bare-bones (sorry!) instrumentation and the choices in style and singing are employed with rigor, and the more you listen to the album, the more it’s apparent how carefully constructed it is. “High Blood Pressure” is particularly striking, with an understated funk in the lead guitar, a gentle counterpoint in the other guitar, and sandpaper vocals from Joe (a 2002 inductee into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame). Those components would be enough to carry the song, but in one passage (and only one passage) Vicki pairs her voice with her husband’s, and it’s the perfect little touch matching the slightly askew guitar interplay. That lead guitar sounds a little tipsy – deeply eloquent but drunk enough to stumble and momentarily lose the tempo, and sober enough to finish the song with a bravura dancing, percussive flourish. Opener “Honey” invokes Night Owls’ drawling vibe immediately, with slow blues licks and Vicki’s sweetest singing, but within a minute the song shows the album’s giddy-up, as deliberate gives way to rollicking guitar and soulful belting. “Dark Bar,” as its title suggests, sustains the pleasantly listless mood for its entirety, with Vicki in lounge-singer mode and contrasting guitar styles – jazz on the one instrument and slightly blown-out blues on the other. The relaxed, unforced singing on Nights Owls is well-suited to its laid-back atmosphere, and the two vocalists provide a natural variety, with Vicki showing an ample range on her own. But in truth, there’s not much that needs to be said (or sang): Joe’s and Vicki’s guitars say, moan, screech, and shout plenty on their own, fully evident on the instrumentals “Airline” and “Whoopee Pie” – very different tracks that push the blues into rockabilly territory. The former rocks, and the latter is spare, precise, and lovely, with the light percussion (on a guitar body) skittering around. The lead on “A Beer Away” effectively mimics a horn section without ever losing its electric-blues character. The guitars on “Fat Cat” are playful and upbeat, while on “Love Kills Slowly,” the bass-heavy playing is slightly ominous and off-kilter, a smart complement to Joe singing, “Love is murder.” So the first impression of Night Owls might be of something tossed-off quickly and easily, and that feeling is reinforced throughout. Yet the minimalist aesthetic and comfortable blues disguise an album that’s sneaky in its richness. Joe & Vicki Price will perform on Sunday, May 3, at a Mississippi Valley Blues Society (MVBS.org) benefit concert at the River Music Experience (129 Main Street, Davenport; RiverMusicExperience.org). Doors open at 1:30 p.m., and other performers include Ellis Kell, “Detroit” Larry Davison & Charlie Hayes, “Detroit” Larry & Blues Rockit, Mercury Brothers, Hal Reed & Mississippi Journey, The Candymakers, and Robert Jon & the Wreck. CITY VIEW SOUND CHECK By Chad Taylor 6/3/2015 Joe and Vicki Price are genuine, bona fide Iowa legends. Anyone looking to verse themselves on the essentials of Iowa blues should start with the Prices — and with good reason. “Night Owls,” the couple’s latest release, features some songs that fans of the pair have been listening to live for a while now, but they feel every bit as vibrant now as the first time around. Opening track “Honey” is a rollicking track that puts Vicki Price’s beautiful, saucy voice front and center, before giving way in the last minute to Joe’s impeccable slide work. Joe — sounding every bit like a classic Mississippi blues man — sings on tracks like “High Blood Pressure,” but it is the tracks where Joe’s guitar and Vicki’s June Carter-esque voice combine that make the pair’s work so vital and exciting to listen to. ALTERNATE ROOT By Danny McCloskey 6/18/2015 There is a joyful noise coming from the front of Joe and Vicki Price’s house as the duo wrangle, wrestle, and call to order musical chaos. Night Owls, their most recent release, savors its recording echoes, speaker distortions, and ambient noise that is as much a part of the album as Joe Price’s Blues as he gives elasticity to the tunes. Rubbery rhythm strums and foot stomps mark the beat on “Sad Luck and Trouble”, determined percussion taps and firefly fast notes are the ingredients of “Whoopee Pie” as the guitar pops like a thermometer in July heat for “High Blood Pressure”. Joe and Vicki Price carry a well-lit torch in Iowa for Delta Blues. Vicki Price complements Joe’s guitar work with Country Blues vocals as she warns to watch out for the pie stealing “Fat Cat”, haunts “Bones” with a stalking vocal that wanders like mist, and fires up a barn dance burner with “Honey”. FOR BOOKING: Bonita Crow - Da’Vine Entertainment - 515- 314-4472 - davine.entertainment@gmail.com www.davineentertainment.com www.facebook.com/davinebooking Joe & Vicki Price -Blues Acres Productions PO Box 32 - Decorah, IA 52101 563-419-8793 joepriceblues@aol.com