“I got to keep on moving, Blues falling down like hail, the day keeps on reminding me there is a Hellhound on my trail” Blues man Robert Johnson, “The Hell Hound on My Trail.”

It was a rainy night in West Hollywood, the boards of the Whisky A Go Go were resounding from the fury and power of Sean Lane’s dream band The Hellhounds. They were playing with five other bands from the harbor in a show nick-named Pedropallooza. The Hellhounds have been invited back to play again, this time in a prime 9 p.m. spot at the famous West Hollywood watering hole on April 7. Steeped in the blues, but raised on rock, these gentlemen perform a vital new music, following in the footsteps of earlier innovators like John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, the 60s-era Rolling Stones, Foghat in the 70s and The Black Crows in the 90s. They have deep roots in a multitude of musical flavors. Sean’s brother Mike pointed out, “Bands who have drawn from many different sources are more interesting than those that try to recreate the same thing over and over.”

Sean agreed, explaining that he started by playing blues covers before he started playing originals. He asked the question, “Then what’s my sound?” Then he answered his own question explaining that, “For a while it was delta, then to rock and on to Tom Waits eclectic thing. But when Mike started playing with us the sound changed without a designed intent.” Within a month after Mike joined the band they wrote two new songs. Sean is a quintessential acoustic blues player, who has stepped into a new light as leader and main songwriter in this highly electric blues/rock band. His vocals are drenched in the sincerity of a life lived hard and to the point, and belies his youthful appearance. His guitar playing is stellar and equally to the point, with sweet tender licks that are punctuated by attacks on his six-string lover.

Skilled in the stylistic idioms of delta blues, he spent months woodshedding the songs of the legendary blues man Robert Johnson and other artists like Charley Patton. Sean developed his own style as he wrote his own songs. He explained, “ We have so many different styles we employ to make our sound we have blues with power.”

As a drummer, Mike (Detriment) brings a drive that kicks this band into high gear with style and showmanship. Despite being brothers, Mike and Sean had previously only played together occasionally, but they have forged a real union with this band, creating something new and edgy. Mike started playing back in the 90’s with another brother covering Black Sabbath and then other bands like Sepultura and Metallica. With his friend Ryan Gomez he went on to start the local legendary death metal group Detriment.

“I have played classic rock to speed metal, but Sean and I have just horsed around until recently. When we really got serious about it, they kind of wanted to up the ante and making it more vibrant.” Sean jumps in here and says, “Our first official gig was the New Years eve at the Think Café, when Mike played with us it was a real unique thing. Whoa! Something happened here. It was interesting because he didn’t know the songs he was just winging it. But we knew we had something.”

Mike adds, “I consider the Whisky show my first gig with them because that’s where we got everything together. We had a set list, we knew the songs, it wasn’t just a blues jam, I think that gig came out real good because we only had a couple of real practices to get that down and some of those songs are pretty long. ‘Somewhere Down’ is 8 minutes.”

Darren “Mojo Slim” Lancaster on harmonica counts Little Walter, Paul Butterfield, and more importantly, Sonny Boy Williamson as his main sources of inspiration. He hails from another great port town, Liverpool, England, and got into playing the blues when he and his wife, Shelly, visited a blues bar in the Gas Light district of San Diego called Patrick’s II after work on a daily cruise ship.

“It is great blues bar,” Darren explained. “I didn’t see a lot of that in England, live blues. I was just loving it. She noticed the way I just locked on to the band specifically… the horns. She bought me a harmonica for Christmas.”

Sean jumped in again saying, “ I am so glad she didn’t buy you a horn” (everyone laughs).

“I was pretty flattered that she even thoughtof it, so she got me a couple of teach your self harmonica books.”

Darren met Sean at Sacred Grounds. “He was politely heckling me (Laughs). I was playing with a friend of mine who has passed away–– Bob Westbrook. He was doing folk / blues /rock thing––a real good vocalist and guitar player. I was playing with him even though his stuff wasn’t really pure blues.”

Sean, at the time, saw Darren’s potential and egged him on by telling him, “Play the blues, man!”

Sean interjected, “I could hear him trying to get some blues licks out but they weren’t playing a blues song, so just play a blues song and just do it.” Eventually he invited Darren on to the stage that night to play with him, “Hey you Harmonica guy... come up and play with me. Everything Darren plays with me just sounds so good so it was pretty instantaneous I’m gonna steal you for my band.”

On bass, Chey Espejo’s mighty hand helps to drive this band with balls to the walls dynamics along with his compadre, Mike.

Born of Argentine parents who made their permanent home in San Pedro, Espejo eventually got into bass. When asked about his start he said, “ I just liked the sound and the feel of the instrument,” wanted to expand his knowledge he saw local blues man Bryon Young down at Sacred Grounds, so Chey worked up the courage and asked to sit in with local San Pedro blues man. Just a few weeks past and he got the call to play his first gig with the veteran guitarist.

Chey went on to attend and graduate from the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, studying various genres, and eventually playing in a big band for a couple of years. Chey counts among his influences Jaco Pastorius, James Jamerson, and “now I’m more into song writers like Charles Mingus.”

Chey and Sean go way back, but he left and joined another group, then he just stopped playing, and began working in graphic design. One day, Sean called him about doing a design for him, and they started talking again.

The last time they played the Whisky, they were asked to come back and play, only this time they have a prime spot starting at 9:30pm. Sean explained that if this is an indication of thing’s to come, then the Hellhounds is another example of our boys taking San Pedro to the world. The Hellhounds are playing the Whisky AGo-Go in West Hollywood at 9:30pm, April 7. Tickets are $7 at the door. With a flier from the band, it is only $5.

Visit the Hellhounds' Sean Lane and Darren "Mojoslim" Lancaster at: myspace.com/seanlanemusic and myspace.com/mojoslimofthehellhounds