By JOHN BURNETT By JOHN BURNETT ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer Don’t let the jokes or his stage name fool you — Popa Chubby is a big man with an even bigger talent. The blues-rock guitarist-vocalist, who was born Ted Horowitz
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Don’t let the jokes or his stage name fool you — Popa Chubby is a big man with an even bigger talent.
The blues-rock guitarist-vocalist, who was born Ted Horowitz 52 years ago in the Bronx, knew his destiny at age 6, when his dad took him to see Chuck Berry in concert.
“There’s Chuck, onstage, larger than life. I see a bulge in his pocket and ask my dad what it is,” he recalled. “‘That’s Chuck’s money,’ my dad said. I was sold on the spot.”
Although electric blues has always been his primary calling, in his 20s Horowitz played in the seminal New York punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and calls punk rock “music for the people.”
Popa will bring his music to the people with three Big Island shows: Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Akebono Theater in Pahoa; Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Royal Kona Resort; and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Honokaa Peoples Theater. General admission is $25 for all shows; there is also $45 gold circle seating for the Kona show. Ticket outlets include CD Wizard and Hilo Music Exchange in Hilo, the Akebono Theater, Music Exchange in Waimea, Taro Gifts in Honokaa and Sound Wave Music and Kiernan Music in Kona. Room and ticket packages only are also available at the Royal Kona Resort by calling 329-3111. Online tickets are available at lazarbear.com. For info, call 896-4845.
Like many blues-oriented artists, Popa is more popular in Europe than in the U.S., but he’s played shows in Hawaii on three previous occasions, building up a local following. His last time on the Big Island, about 15 years ago, he brought down the house at the former Lehua’s Bar & Grill with a mix of blues-rock standards plus originals like “Sweet Goddess of Love and Beer.”
“I’m looking for a beautiful young Hawaiian girl to bear my next child,” he quipped.
His most recent release, “Back to New York City,” is his second CD on the esteemed Dutch label Provogue, distributed in the U.S. by the Mascot Label Group, a guitar-rock oriented concern with a roster that boasts Los Lonely Boys, Gov’t Mule, former Mountain frontman Leslie West and erstwhile Canned Heat guitarist Walter Trout. He said he got his inspiration for the album on a return flight home from Europe and called it “a really strong record.”
“I was coming home and I saw the lights there and I thought, ‘Everything’s all right, it’s New York City,’” he said. “It was like a beacon, a constant in the night. In a lot of ways New York, even though I travel everywhere, is where I get my juice from.”
Popa’s Hawaiian adventure comes on the heels of a large festival date in Brazil. He declared that “any day playing the guitar is a good one” but admitted that his globe-trotting lifestyle sometimes causes confusion, albeit in a good way.
“When you’re in Brazil on Saturday and Maui on a Tuesday, the lines get blurred. When you’re finishing a festival set at 2 in the morning and driving to the airport at 4 for a 6 a.m. flight, things tend to get real,” he said. “… Oftentimes I find myself watching the sunrise and I won’t even be able to remember where that was, except to remember that it was remarkably beautiful. It’s those moments where I really appreciate what I do. Whether it’s islands, on a mountain overlooking a volcano in Corsica or on the steps of the Vatican in Rome, I’ve been to some places I’ve never thought I would be from the streets of the Bronx.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
