Lansing’s Just Magnetic joins stellar regional blues festival in Houghton Lake

After making a splash on the national scene in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this year, Lansing bluesman Justin Deason and his band, Just Magnetic, have been grinding hard at several local venues and are ready to jump in the lake — the Houghton Lake Blues Festival.

The festival, now in its ninth year, will give Just Magnetic some prime lakefront exposure next weekend, along with a stellar lineup of legends from Detroit, Chicago and beyond.

“It’s great to represent the capital city and the Capital Area Blues Society with such great talent at the festival,” Deason said. “It’s a great lineup, and it’s going to be a great weekend of music.”

Produced by the Houghton Lake Performing Arts Association, the festival has expanded to two blues-packed days and dropped its cover charge, thanks to grants from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and other businesses and organizations.

In January, Just Magnetic made it to the quarter finals out of more than 260 bands converging on the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

“That was very exciting and fun,” Deason said.

Memphis is where Deason was fatally bitten by the blues bug in 2022, when he performed at the International Blues Challenge with a friend, Wil Pruitt, as the Dedfoot Duo.

“The energy, the feeling in the air in Memphis, really put a spark in me,” he said. He started writing songs for an album and assembled a band as soon as he got home.

Back in Lansing, Deason lined up a series of spring and summer gigs for his energized musicians, with a trip to Houghton Lake as a wild-card gig.

The band has ramped up its local presence since its debut album, “Life Electric,” was released in 2024. Just Magnetic hosts a blues jam the first Wednseday of each month at Homebrew Tabletop Game Lounge in Grand Ledge. The group has also performed several times at the Irish Pub, Classic Pub & Grill and other local venues.

“The other performers here have been very welcoming,” Deason said. “The Lansing scene has many great musicians, but there aren’t as many places to play locally as I would wish, so I have to kind of spread out and tour in Grand Rapids and Detroit more frequently.”

Deason has been drawn to the guitar since he was a kid, listening to classic rock. At 13, he found the perfect mentor in local legend S.J. Forgey, aka “Frog” of Frog & the Beeftones.

Deason grew up in Lansing, attended Sexton High School and was drawn in his early teens to the guitar wizardry of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“He did such great things with the instrument, and with the wild outfits he would wear. It really inspired me to pick up the guitar,” Deason said.

Far from being a Stevie Ray clone — if such a thing were possible — Deason tempers Vaughan’s poet-outlaw persona with a deep feeling for Delta blues.

In original songs like the cleverly titled “Soulution,” Deason pares the notes down to hurt-so-good needle pricks that tattoo the blues on your skin in the insinuating manner of another one of his idols, B.B. King.

“I love all the Kings,” Deason said — not only classic blues greats Albert King and Freddie King, but also their much younger namesake, Grammy-nominated bluesman Marcus King.

Deason seems to have bottled his positive energy from the same spring as Marcus King and other younger artists who have lovingly yanked the blues inside out, like a pair of old overalls, to reveal a cherry-red lining of joy. 

“I’ve dedicated a lot of time, many years, to my craft, before I was able to even get into the bars and sit in on blues jams with Frog, tag along to shows, get a feel for the life of a touring musician,” he said. “Frog taught me an awful lot.”

Joining Deason in Just Magnetic are Detroit drummer Duane Hewins Jr., guitarist Joe Diamond and bassist A.T. Welter, aka “the bass pro.” (Welter often sports a hat from Bass Pro Shop, with the ubiquitous fish logo, but of course, his bandmates pronounce it with a long “a.”)

Deason’s and Diamond’s guitar licks pop back and forth with a satisfying salt-and-pepper contrast. 

“We find the place in the song and give each other plenty of room to shine, to service the song and not overdo it,” Deason said. “It’s a lot of fun when we get together, and I think that shows through.”

Deason loves to cover blues classics, but he relishes the chance to compose and play original tunes like “Soulution,” a heartfelt reminder to take care of the natural environment.

“I love that song. It’s fun to play, it gets people moving, and I hope it resonates.”

Other songs return to the age-old blues themes of love, heartbreak and work.

“Everyone has had their heart broken and can relate to a love song in one form or another,” Deason said. “I like to stick to the classic themes but put a modern twist on them.”

A new single is due to be released soon, with a sophomore album planned for 2027.

“As a songwriter, you’re a student of history, and you look at what’s come before,” Deason said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s rock ‘n’ roll, Southern soul, even country music — it all leads back to the blues.”

Deason also works with the Capital Area Blues Society to bring blues presentations to schools, in order “to get people more involved with blues music and keep it going with the younger generation.”

Just Magnetic plays from 6-7 p.m. July 17, just before the evening’s featured act, the Jabo Bihlman Band. Bihlman, a former instructor at the National Guitar Workshop and Interlochen Center for the Arts, is active as lead guitarist and co-founder of Grinder Blues, playing alongside King’s X frontman Doug Pinnick. He’s also an Emmy-award-winning singer, songwriter and producer.

Saturday night’s big headliner is Chicago legend Lil’ Ed (aka Lil’ Ed Williams) and his Blues Imperials, a staple of the Chicago Blues Festival and stages around the world.

The festival’s Detroit contingent includes blues rocker Jim McCarty, who has played with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Buddy Miles and many other blues greats.

Deason (and the festival’s promoters) hopes Just Magnetic will sweeten the pot for Lansing blues fans who are tempted to make the drive to Houghton Lake for the weekend.

“It’s just a jaunt down the road,” he said. “So, there’s no reason there shouldn’t be lots of familiar faces from the Lansing area.”