John Németh

Born in Idaho during 1975, John Németh spent his childhood in Boise, where his initial musical experiences came through performances in the local Catholic Church. As a teenager he joined several area groups, and at age seventeen a friend named Tom Moore introduced him to the blues. The pair promptly formed Fat John & the 3 Slims, a unit still remembered as legendary throughout the Boise region. In 2002 Németh joined the Junior Watson Band while simultaneously leading his own group, the Jacks. Already recognized for his wide-ranging, skillful, and deeply soulful singing, he had by then become an accomplished blues harmonica player, a development that earned him a temporary place in Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets substituting for the late Sam Myers. That same year the Jacks issued their self-released debut, The Jack of Harps; two years later they followed with the similarly independent Come and Get It, which included contributions from the Junior Watson Band. Also in 2004 Németh departed Boise for San Francisco. He signed with Blind Pig Records in 2006, and the label issued Magic Touch the next year, an album produced by Anson Funderburgh and featuring Junior Watson on guitar. Name the Day! appeared on the same imprint in 2010. Early in 2014 Németh released Memphis Grease, recorded at Scott Bomar’s Electraphonic Studio in Memphis with the Bo-Keys and produced by Bomar himself. He returned in 2017 with his ninth album, Feelin’ Freaky, produced by Luther Dickinson and cut with his regular ensemble, the Blue Dreamers.