The blues-hollerin' Black Joe Lewis may have the wounded soul of Wilson Pickett and the showmanship of James Brown, but the young Austinite's roots are in gangsta rap and punk, which actually works in his favor. While the more established bluesmen in this town are so robotically proficient with their instruments that their music has all the raw power of a Michael McDonald song, Lewis' primitive playing gets to the heart of the music, harkening back to the days of self-taught pioneers like Lightnin' Hopkins.