Smokin’ Joe Kubek, born on November 30, 1956, and died October 11, 2015, Joe was an American Texas blues electric guitarist, songwriter, and performer.
Born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, Joe grew up in the Dallas, Texas area.
In the 1970s during his teen years, he played with the likes of Freddie King and in the 1980s began performing with Louisiana-born singer Bnois King.
In 1985, Joe released his first record on Bird Records, a 45 RPM single with the tracks “Driving Sideways” (written by Freddie King and Sonny Thompson) and “Other Side Of Love” (written by Doyle Bramhall, Sr.).
The single was executively produced by Clint Birdwell and co-produced by Charley Wirz and Joe .
The two tracks reappeared on Joe’s 2012 album, Let That Right Hand Go, produced by Clint Birdwell and issued on Birdwell’s label, Bird Records Texas.
The album is a collection of mostly unreleased material recorded since the 1980s (with the 1985 single’s track, “Other Side Of Love”, entitled “The Other Side Of Love”).
In 1991, Joe released his first full-length album entitled Steppin’ Out Texas Style (Bullseye Blues Records) and later released over a dozen albums on various labels.
Joe died at age 58 on October 2015.