Matt Isbell of Ghost Town Blues Band/Photo: Ghost Town Blues Band

Surrounded by history and folklore, the blues is as much myth as it is music. Growing up in Memphis, Matt Isbell absorbed the tales of the crossroads, Hoodoo music, and the Diddley bow, along with the music of B.B. King, Stax Records, and the country swamp sound of nearby Muscle Shoals, Alabama. As a teen, Isbell was given lessons on the “wah-wah” pedal by none other than Stax legend Charles Pitts, whose work on the “Theme From Shaft” revolutionized the technique.

Isbell has not only incorporated many of these musical elements into the sound of the Ghost Town Blues Band, but also added visual representations of this lore, playing a cigar box guitar, electric push brooms, and displaying a skull-laden “juju stick” on stage. This, combined with a more eclectic approach toward longer sets—like mingling in verses of the Beatles’ “Come Together” into the middle of a song—makes watching the Ghost Town Blues Band both a concert and a show.

“I was born and raised in Memphis and I have moved three times, but I haven’t moved a square block from where I was born,” Isbell says. “So from childhood I have known that Memphis is a musical melting pot, mainly because of it being a river town. The music flows up and down the Mississippi River; there is a vibe from New Orleans, a vibe from Mississippi and then all the way up to Chicago.”

Formed in 2009, the band’s 2019 album “Shine” topped the Billboard charts as the number-one blues album and slotted at number twenty-six under rock albums. The Ghost Town Blues Band was hailed by Living Blues Magazine as “What can happen when the past is distilled through young sensibilities, voices and instruments. This is twenty-first-century blues at its best.”

The band’s sound is based on the traditional 1/4/5 blues. Isbell identifies himself as a “bluesman”; as the lead singer, Isbell’s vocals have that classic, southern, country-blues tenor that suggests a man who doesn’t actively try to tell a story of years on the road. It just flows out of him.

The group takes after the practice of a great Memphis pit master who transforms the basic idea of barbecue by preparing it with different varieties of meats, sauces and rubs.

Photo: Ghost Town Blues Band

“My drummer, Garrett Marshall, comes from a rock ‘n’ roll background,” Isbell says. “My bass player, Matt Karner, has a great jazz knowledge. My keyboard player, Grayson Smith, comes from sort of a jam band and jazz mixture. And our current horn player, Grady Henderson, comes from a church background. So like the Booker T and the MG’s song ‘Melting Pot,’ we are a good example of what Memphis is, a great group of musicians and people gathered along the river.”

The band also includes covers of not only classic blues rock like the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post,” but renditions of songs like “Never Been to Spain,” or a medley that begins with “Just Got Paid” by ZZ Top, to a James Brown-style number, then “Voodoo Child,” “Superstition” and back to ZZ Top, with maybe a verse of the Beatles’ “Come Together” thrown in. This keeps the ears of the audience on their toes.

Visually, the band also melds music with many of the folk elements of the blues and Memphian culture. One of the examples of this is Isbell playing a cigar box guitar. Isbell makes the instruments and has sold them to musicians like Eric Schenkman of the Spin Doctors, Michael Leonhart of Steely Dan and even Cyndi Lauper. Isbell and his craft were the subject of the short documentary film, “Once There Was A Cigar Box,” that has been selected and won prizes at many national and European film festivals.

“Cigars used to come in barrels, but during the Civil War times they started putting them in boxes so the government could tax tobacco better,” Isbell says. “That was a time when people didn’t make a lot of money, so they got creative and took that box, took a broomstick or some wire from a screen door, and made a Diddley bow or a simple guitar. It’s kind of an old Southern thing going back to when people didn’t have a lot of money, they made do with what they had.”

Matt Isbell plays the cigar box guitar/Photo: Ghost Town Blues Band

Basically usable to play regular notes or chords, the cigar box guitar produces a raw, primitive, slide guitar sound that has probably never been heard by the audience. Visually, it is unique and striking, as a cardboard box with a picture of Prince Edward is suddenly producing music.

“There is a saying in Memphis that if you swing a cat you will hit a good guitar player,” Isbell says, “so I needed a way to stand out. We also take our juju stick with us everywhere,” Isbell continues. “It’s an old gumbo stirring spoon, and it’s covered with skulls and baby heads. It looks like a lot of voodoo stuff, and people put things on it, steal things from it—it’s kind of like our mascot but it also adds a visual element to our show. With all this technology people have shorter and shorter attention spans. Hell, the guys in the band have short attention spans, so this stuff makes it a lot more fun for all of us.”

Ghost Town Blues Band’s Shine Tour comes to Rosa’s Lounge, 3420 West Armitage, Friday, July 25. Ticket to the 9:30pm show is $20 in advance and $25 at the door; ticket to the 11pm show is $15 if available. For more information, visit rosaslounge.com.