Grammy, Blues Music Award and W.C. Handy Award winner, Joe Sublett started his musical career playing in bands in Corpus Christi, Texas before moving to Austin where as part of the 1970s Austin blues scene he played tenor sax with Paul Ray and The Cobras alongside a twenty-one year old Stevie Ray Vaughan. The Cobras, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble played a big part in defining Austin, Texas as the music city it has become in the last several decades.
Joe’s Texas tenor saxophone sound has been heard on records by The Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Ryan Adams, Chris Cornell, Leon Russell, Elton John, Randy Newman, Gregg Allman, Los Lonely Boys, Keb Mo, Bono, Little Feat, Black Crowes, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, John Mayall, Otis Rush, Macy Gray, The Black Crowes, Buddy Guy, Percy Sledge, Jimmy Buffett, Soloman Burke, Jimmy Smith, Rhiannon Giddens, Richard Thompson, Bette Midler, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and more.
He considers his work in the Cobras and as a member of the Antones Blues Club House band a kind of blues college where he learned his craft performing with Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, James Cotton, Junior Wells, Hubert Sumlin, Memphis Slim and scores of other blues artists.
Joe has composed music for TV and film as well as released two CDs under his own name. He released his solo record, ‘Subtones’ in 2008 and ‘Texacali Horns’ -Darrell Leonard/Joe Sublett in 2006 as well as five CDs with The Phantom Blues Band.
Joe has toured with Taj Mahal, Little Feat, The Band, Bonnie Raitt, The Phantom Blues Band, Delbert McClinton, The Blues Brothers, Johnny Rivers, Lou Ann Barton, Joe Ely, The Cobras and many others. Joe is currently touring as a member of The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band.