Maxx Cabello Jr.

Maxx Cabello Jr. was a crowd favorite with his high-octane boogie and other tunes. He's young and an exciting presence on stage, and you can hear the influences in his music: John Lee Hooker and Michael Osborn (who was Hooker's band leader for years), ZZ Top, Cain. - Mercury News (John Orr)

All of the characteristics of a striving musician, Maxx Cabello Jr., demonstrates the brink of a new age through a pluck of a string. As we all bare-witness of his multiplication, I've held the truth certain. His driving force is pushing weight.

Growing up of Mexican descent, he found himself utilizing all genres of music to inspire him, which is clearly felt through the stage he rips today.

Maxx: "I grew up listening to Chuck Berry, I was young but that was the rock n' roll of the 60's and 70's. I think every few years someone is creating something different because they're not scared to play what they feel, that's the beauty of it, you know".

His other influences include the great Curtis Mayfield, Jimmy Hedrix, Santana and of course Mexican Ranchera music which he mentions as a child growing up, he would sing a long to tunes set by his parents and siblings.

Through the many instruments one can play, Maxx Cabello Jr. picked a up guitar at age 13 and knew his destined path to play, would come without sacrifice.

Maxx: "If you love the instrument you’re going to play it. Like anything in life, if you like drawing your going to draw, if your gonna wanna play guitar your gonna play the guitar. If you wanna sing your gonna sing. You gotta find your own nitch in life. That's a gift, I think that's what a lot of people don't fall back on. They don't go with what their heart tells them. It's the will to wanna play..."

His debut came 2 years later on a weekend set for his hometown of San Jose California in front of 10,000 people. The very next day he performed at his graduating class's ceremony; to top it off, that sunday in the Oakland Colosseum at a Raiders half time show, he killed the stage to football fans witnessing the phenomenon of a young musician blazing his trail through time.

Maxx:" I remember I was nervous as shit and broke more strings than I have ever broken in my entire life, but I got through it and I've been playing ever since."

One can only imagine the amount of notes he drills into his 1978 Gibson guitar, let alone kill the stage with from the gut soulful vocals. The possibility of his diverse steeze can only sit in categories of those who simply see truth in music. I caught up with him at one of his many venues around the Bay Area and discussed what is in store for the future of Rock n' Roll and his everlasting presence in it.

As I wait for him to greet the crowd after his performance, the waitress hands him a jack and coke on the rocks. He sits and makes himself comfortable and we engage in an interview of his thoughts on his grind and double disk 32 song album titled "Love and War"

Luis: "What would you say is your perspective on the hustle"?

Maxx: " I've never hustled it. I've just always laid back and let God guide me to wherever I have to go. If it's time for me to go here, then I go...I don't rush music, a lot of people now-a-days they wanna play music and be a star, I never wanted to be star, I just want to win a Grammy. I'd appreciate that more. Everyone wants money, times are changing and there is a lot of people who have won Grammy's that don't deserve it. For all the cats I grew up with John Lee Hooker, all the ol' real deal stuff, I wanna win a Grammy for them to say thank you. I learned from you guys." - Luis Medellin

Listen to Maxx Cabello Jr.'s catalogue and you will quickly notice a variety of music influences. Two steps into Maxx's recording studio and you'll notice the walls decorated with his somewhat surprising music taste. A few minutes into a conversation with Maxx and it all makes sense.

It can be a challenge to categorize Maxx's sound due to his range across styles and moods but there are elements of his music that are consistently bold. Without question Maxx is Rock-and-Roll, he never fails to deliver without Soul and the Blues in his music can't be ignored. His track "The Devils Symphony" displays his abilities on the guitar with a strong sense of pure Rock-and-Roll, and when listening to his version of "Shame, Shame, Shame" all we could think was Blues and drinking whiskey. Maxx has managed to build an impressive resume in his young, yet experienced career consisting of performances around the world and opening gigs for several music legends.

We caught up with Maxx to talk about his upcoming projects, music and allowing his fans to classify his music.

DLLD: What is your music's genre if you can categorize it?

Maxx: I grew up listening to all styles of music. I grew up listening to Mexican Music and stuff like that, from way old Spanish stuff to Santana to Chuck Berry. My Music is very eclectic it's really mixed. If I could categorize it, I would say it's more like Rock-and-Roll and Soul, it's more like Curtis Mayfield meets Jimi Hendrix meets the Isley Brothers with a newer sound and image.

DLLD: A lot of your music has a very Bad-Ass Americana, Rock-and-Roll feel, how did you come across this style of music?

Maxx: Everybody plays music in my family, I have three sisters and one brother and we're all musically talented: my mom and dad play music too. So I grew up listening to a lot of Mexican music but at the same time I was really into that old Rock-and-Roll that Little Richard, that early Santana all that kind of stuff but my neighbor the guy that tough me how to play guitar turned me on to the blues. That's where I started playing the blues, started listening to a lot of that B.B. King, Freddie King, Albert King so many blues musicians. That's where my heart has always been, from there I've added my own twist. I grew up playing in 16-piece orchestra kind of bands. Now where I'm at — I've taken all of the love of that kind of music and made it my own.

DLLD: Where do you see Blues and Rock-n-Roll going, do you see any type of comeback with young or new artist?

Maxx: I don't and that's kind of the tough thing about the music. I think a lot of that real music is dying; it's a dying breed. That old Rock-and-Roll, that Soul music, that real music that was back then is a dying sound. That's why I've been caught in the middle. A lot of people say, "he's a Blues artist" or he's this or that but I've never considered myself a Blues artist. I think I have a lot more to offer than just the Blues. The Blues is just one entity that I've taken on but I think I come with more of a soulful Rock-and-Roll feel, with a Blues Bass background. The music that I'm coming out with — it's kind of like I'm taking the torch I want to lead the pack because the music is a dying breed. There's not a lot of that original sound you know, guys playing the guitar now a days it's like "let's go and do auto-tune" and people don't sing anymore. Anybody can go into a studio and sound like they're some great musician because they have auto-tune and all these great programs that'll make you sound a certain way. It's not that old soul-sound and that's where I'm coming from.

DLLD: Do you see the faded popularity of soulful music as an advantage or disadvantage?

Maxx: It varies on the day, what time it is and where I'm at, because sometimes I feel like, "shit, well here I am, I have an opportunity to really make in impact on music and give the people something different" and sometimes I feel like, "damn I'm late in the game" but I don't see it like that as much anymore because I feel my music is starting to speak for it's self. I think it has an old school feel, with a new sound, image and a vibe.

DLLD: You mentioned growing up around Mexican music and I noticed as I came into the studio Mexican albums on your wall, is that a music area you would like to explore?

Maxx: That's where my heart really is. I've been to Mexico City and performed tree or four times, it's my soul. Being Mexican we have a really beautiful musical background. I think Mexican music is very sensitive and I think now where I am with music, at some point I'm going to go back to Mexico and do some music in Spanish. I write in Spanish and I sing in Spanish, I grew up singing in Spanish so I think I want to take it back to my roots and give people my interpretation.

That's what I'm big on, interpretation of music. A lot of musicians now will go the studio and say, "I want to sound like this guy and I want to be produced like this guy", I want - J. Romero

The American music flame will never go out as long as young artists such as Maxx Cabello Jr. take the torch and keep it burning. This young guitarist, soulful vocalist, and prolific songwriter, has drawn praise from the likes of John Lee Hooker, Chris Cain and Guitar Shorty and he sells out clubs across the country.

"Oh yeah, that boy can really play!"-John Lee Hooker

Maxx launched into the club scene while he was in high school, attracting a younger crowd to traditional blues music --and suprisingly, a crowd filled with women drawn to his smooth Chris Isaak vocals and funky grooves. They know the audience always dances at a Maxx show, and many follow him from city to city.

While his early career leaned toward guitar heavy, standard blues like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang before him, he has recently taken a huge leap into writing songs that come from a broader genre. His recent double disc set is half rocking, half soulful ballads, with strains of original music that sound classic the first time you hear them. His work draws comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix or Santana, beyond any standard genre, and a mix of all of them.

"He plays his ass off!"-Garth Webber (Former guitarist of Miles Davis, Lydia Pense and Cold Blood)

Live... well, his show is all energy. He has people on their feet just long enough to get exhausted, and then he peppers in soulful tunes that let them know they are seeing an artist, not another flash guitarist off the blues assembly line. “Everything that ever mattered, we were lying to ourselves,” he sings on his newest hit, "War," which looks at the tragedy of the real and psychological battlefields. You hear it and think: why isn’t this all over the radio? In the ‘60s, this would have been an anthem.

And maybe it will be. Cabello was the only young player at last summer’s Woodstock 40th Anniversary show in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park featuring classic rockers Jefferson Starship, Edwin Hawkins, Country Joe, Moby Grape and the Chambers Brothers. He was the guy they picked for sounding new and classic at the same time, the only young performer there. He was the future, they said.

"Maxx Cabello is a name you are going to remember!"-Dick Dale

Maxx has opened for greats such as Earth, Wind, and Fire, John Lee Hooker, Ozomatli, Dickey Betts, Otis Rush, Roy Rogers, Guitar Shorty, W.C. Clarke, Tierra, Tommy Castro, Chris Cain, Gary Hoey, Roomful of Blues, Duke Robillard, Booker T. & the MG's and Shemika Copeland. More recently he was asked to open for the popular alternative group Third Eye Blind at Lake Tahoe’s outdoor concert series. When he received a standing ovation there, critics knew they were seeing a new kind of musican.

"Reminds me of how I used to play when I was kid."-Guitar Shorty

Besides touring the country’s blues clubs, including all of the BB King namesakes, Maxx fronted the toughest crowd in football: headling the Oakland Raiders Half-Time Show.

He bowled over that huge crowd with a balls to the wall performance. The amazing thing about him is that he gives the same energy to a club of 500 people that he does for 50,000. Night after night, he lights up the room, lifts it off the ground, and sends it flying for a show of blood, sweat and tears, that fans will never forget.

"That kid rips!"-Chris Cain - Brad Kava

City Stages Unplugged has become an increasingly plugged-in event, with electrified instruments generating powerful bursts of sound. No problem with that, especially when the musicians are as talented as this year's kickoff act, Maxx Cabello Jr.
The California guitarist launched the festival's free afternoon show on Friday by playing a heavy set of blues-rock, making his dobro vibrate intensely. With mixed-metal songs such as "Heartbreaker," Cabello and his partners, a bassist and a drummer, made their Saturday set at the festival proper a must-see. - City Stages Birmingham, AL