Interview and words by Dennis Atkins, photographs by Rachel Clark
Michael “Mojo” Webb is a fixture of the Brisbane blues, as all readers of these posts know.
Whether you saw him decades ago at his legendary residency in the Story Bridge Hotel’s now gentrified, Bomb Shelter Bar, or at the many festivals in South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers or current venues like the Royal Mail at Goodna, the Bearded Lady in West End, Lefty’s in Petrie Terrace and the Brisbane Jazz Club — the list goes on — you will know one thing.
Mojo Webb plays and works hard, puts his heart and soul into everything he does and knows his music, whether performing solo, with other successful local acts or with the help of his mates in the Mojo Webb Band — J.B. Lewis on bass and Coojee Timms on the drums (sometimes Jason Chandler handles the bass and Peter Robertson the drums).
A highlight for Mojo — and the local music scene — was the band’s 2011 success in the local Blues Association of South East Queensland contest to enter the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, in January 2012.
Mojo and his fellow band members are one of a very small handful of local blues players, including Hat Fitz and Cara, who have cut the mustard and made it to Memphis.
The Mojo Webb Band impressed in two rounds of IBC heats, making it to the semi-finals in Memphis. But so far, none of the BASEQ contenders has climbed to the top and made it to the big stage on grand final night at the Orpheum, the storied venue that’s featured a century of the greats — B.B.King, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland and, more recently, acts like Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt.
When we spoke to Mojo before Easter (a weekend when he played the Royal Mail on Saturday and the Bearded Lady on Sunday), he was only too happy to recall getting to the challenge and the hot house atmosphere of dead of winter Memphis.
He shared with us his memories and offered some weathered advice for any local blues acts wanting to enter this year’s BASEQ contest to select an act to send to Memphis in 2026.
The background to that 2011/12 experience probably stretches back to 2007 when Mojo won the Chain Award — named after the great 1960s/70s Australian Blues quartet Chain, led by Phil Manning and Matt Taylor. He had honed skills that would prove useful five years later when he took on the IBC — recording an album of originals in 2006, playing all the instruments and getting his live playing to top shelf level.
It’s the same for the IBC although the discipline and structure is more demanding.
His memory of getting to Memphis in a cold January, 2012 was of excitement matched by ”kid in a toy shop” excitement.
Mojo Webb Band when competing for the Memphis Challenge to represent BASEQ
“That strip there (Beale Street) is buzzing — there are so many musicians, so many spectators and (just) a lot happening overall,” Mojo recalls, adding it was tempered by serious jet lag.
Almost as soon as they hit the ground they were playing at different venues each night with those famous IBC rules — 25 minutes, a focus on originality, minimal banter and excellence in performance.
Also, Mojo remembers one or two nights playing an extra gig which just hardens the mental and physical workload and throws a weight on the jet lag.
”The net result of (all) that was that we were so tired … I think there was one night there where I didn’t sleep at all,” says Mojo.
”My clock was so far out, I was extremely tired. I think we played like five or six nights in a row and I had almost lost my voice by the end of it.
”So that’s something I would certainly recommend for people to just try to measure themselves and try and get as much rest as possible because it can be physically quite demanding.”
Through the weariness, Mojo sought to soak up as much of the Memphis blues as he could in what was always going to be a short, full-on visit.
”It was interesting to see lots about the acts, to be immersed in the culture there; as I said it was my first time in the States so we enjoyed that,” he reflected.
“But, any form of musical competition is, I think, by its very nature a sort of a strange beast. It certainly is for me.
”I think of music as an art form and to compete in that art has a sort of a bittersweet nature to it.
“The idea of having art, having a look at it so objectively and being judged, that’s always gonna be a strange thing for a performer.”
Mojo says the band approached it like a university student approaching an exam or essay — checking the criteria, digging into what’s needed and doing the work to bring that through their skills and talent.
“You have to write your blues essay to meet the criteria, that’s a really important aspect to it,” he says, placing this objective at the top of what he saw as the requirements to make it in Memphis.
“If you take a very good look at the wording of the criteria and the weight that’s given to the originality and blues content (as the) two cornerstones.
“That’s how I interpreted it and I think that’s what they’re really looking for.
”They want things that are original obviously, but it’s an ongoing subject for debate in blues, and any other sort of legacy or historic musical form — how can one be original while also being (true to the) blues, whatever that means.
”So yes, it means finding some sort of balance.”
Mojo remembers the judges as very knowledgeable but often with different ideas about their personal interpretations of the art.
”They’re looking for new material so I absolutely made sure that our entire set was original; (with) no cover versions,” he says.
”But also it has to be to fit in the umbrella of blues or whatever that means to the judges on the day.”
As well as the competition side of it, Mojo drew as much as he could from the IBC to help further his career as a professional blues player, starting with the exposure at home meaning people in Australia would get to know more about him and the band because they were there.
He adds it was rewarding to make contacts, building that essential profile needed for marketing.
”There’s definitely scope to do all of that. You could go home from one of those nights, your pockets full of business cards from booking people, from radio stations, from blues associations, all around the world,” Mojo remembers.
“As a way of networking it’s extremely useful. Obviously, the world has changed a bit since I was there, but I’m sure that is still very much the case.”
Mojo also says his brief time in Memphis raised his sometimes romantic vision of the blues scene of old and snapped his mind to the often hard, commercial reality of playing just for tips.
“(In the US) acts might play for three or four hours straight and, if they really put on some crazy show, then it’s more likely that people are going to throw the money,” he says.
“The music always comes first (for me) and if people pay me to do it, then that’s just a little bonus and that’s the way I’ve always been.”
On the experience of going to Memphis for the IBC, Mojo couldn’t be more positive.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity and it’s great that blues associations like ours are involved and help to make things like this happen,” he says.
”It’s a very positive experience. It can be very challenging in certain ways, but it’s definitely worthwhile.”
To show he hasn’t lost the use of an old blues coda of the understatement, he concludes his talk with us with this: “It’s something you’ll never forget.“
That’s surely true but like any dedicated blues man, Mojo has his feet firmly on the ground, as Brisbane fans saw when, over the Easter weekend this year, he played guitar with Buzz and the Blues Band (fronted by Robert “Buzz” Oxford, a Brisbane veteran and longtime partner in musical adventures with Mojo) at the Royal Mail and with his eponymous outfit at the Bearded Lady.
Like the blues he plays, Mojo ain’t ever going to give up.