The local blues band Apostle Jones came together about seven years ago when singer-guitarist Mikey Silas returned to Cleveland from a 15-year stint in Chicago, where he worked in local theater and sang at open mics.
“When I returned to Cleveland, I went in and out of the open mic scene a bunch,” says Silas via phone as he collected the physical CDs of the band’s first studio album, 2nd Chances Don’t Come Easy, which had just arrived in the mail. The group plays a release party on Saturday at the Beachland Ballroom. “I was going to all the shows and wanted to start a blues project. I started with one guy, and we kept adding pieces to it. I like to say the universe brought us together.”
As evidence of the cosmos aligning for Apostle Jones, Silas met guitarist Michael Haburay one afternoon as he was on a walk in Ohio City.
“This guy would walk by,” says Silas. “I asked him about his astrological sign. He was a Libra. I thought Libra energy would be good. In turned out, he went to Cleveland State University and played guitar. We jammed, and he’s the guitarist in the band to this day.”
Silas says he always gravitated to music while growing up in Northeast Ohio; several local acts left a lasting impression.
“My father was a big Cleveland music fan,” he says. “He loved Carlos Jones and Jim Miller. I grew up listening to his CDs. I also fell in love with the radio and the Billboard charts and MTV. I taught myself to play piano; I don’t come from a musical family. I had to learn on my own. School programs helped. I was in choir and band.”
In the early days, the group played “a lot of DIY shows” and regularly performed at CODA.
“It’s actually easy to put a show together in this city and build a community,” says Silas. “I still host open mic at CODA every Wednesday. It’s great to see newer artists come in and meet each other and form bands.”
The group has put out a couple of EPs and live recordings. The new album represents its first full-length studio project and its showcases its modern blues sound.
“This is our first time in a studio with everyone playing and writing,” says Silas. “It’s one of those milestones thing that you get to do. You don’t have to do it, but you get to do it, as my dad used to say.”
The group recorded some of the album at a de-sanctified church in Midtown and then went to Signal Flow Studios to record the rest of it.
“I liked recording in a less traditional space,” says Silas, adding that he’s lived in the church since 2021.
Silas sees the album as “a statement about emotionally surviving the chaos in the world.”
“Nina Simone says the job of the artist is to reflect the times,” he says. “The songs are about how I see the world shaping up, and things are crappy, to be honest. Things are cyclical, and it made sense to include [a cover of the Temptations’ tune] ‘Ball of Confusion’ on the album. In general, we wanted an album that has a timeless feel. It’s important that anyone can enjoy it. Some of my favorite music would fall into the timeless record category.”
The band has gotten by with a little help from its Cleveland friends, and Silas gives a shoutout to music manager David Spero, Grog Shop booking agent Wallace Settles, Beachland Ballroom co-owner Cindy Barber, local singer-songwriter Brent Kirby and Grog Shop owner Kathy Blackman.
“Those people have been impactful in different ways,” says Silas. “Brent Kirby has helped us become professionals and gotten us work around town. He’s been very influential. That’s just who he is. Cindy Barber had us as an incubator band with her Cleveland Rocks nonprofit, and that helped us build a nice audience and develop some skills. Kathy Blackman has always given us a lot of freedom to use the Grog Shop. She’s so ambitious and lets us be more ambitious. David Spero is my personal mentor. He’s helped me become a better band member and focus on songwriting. It’s been a big group effort.”
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