People may think they know what to expect when they go to see a blues-rock band.

The hard-luck stories in song.

The cliche riffs.

The sparse lyrics repeated over and over and over and over.

And it's not that The Loft favorites King Johnson avoid all those. It's just that they kind of give the blues cliches a big, sloppy kiss - adorning their tunes with sax riffs and playful tuba lines.

But these guys make their strongest bid for the crown when they venture into other territory, like jazz, rockabilly or straight-up rock. That's just what they do on their new album, "Luck So Strange."

The title track is a good example of why the band's luck is so strange. The song originally was written for their previous album, but didn't make the cut. Some months later, the band was jamming with the tune and made a discovery.

"We just tried it with a two-beat sort of thing," said Adam Mewherter, the band's trombonist and tuba player.

The result was a transformed song with enough punch to stand as the title of the new disc.

There are other bright spots. The ragtime-flavored "Slow Down" has the most puckish use of a tuba's oompah since early Springsteen.

The song "Dead Dog" opens with a roots-rock guitar-and-drums shuffle that bristles with so much energy that you know it's going to explode.

The slow, folky "Luckiest Man" drew comparisons to Van Morrison in the Atlanta entertainment magazine Creative Loafing, but more on-target would be Jackson Browne or "Desperado"-era Eagles.

In any case, Mewherter said, they're flattered by comparisons but don't get too worked up over them.

"It's always a positive reaction, to be compared to people that have spent their whole lives doing what we're trying to do," said Mewherter, 35, who helps write instrument lines, but not lyrics. "Sometimes I don't think so much in terms of comparisons. I think that song (Luckiest Man) has a real universal type of meaning. I love that line, 'I was thinking of ways not to lose'."

Guitarist Oliver Wood and bassist Chris Long formed the band about a decade ago. Drummer Greg Baba rounds out the rhythm section, and saxophonist Marcus James joins Mewherter to give the overall lineup a kick in the brass.

Mewherter said each member brings different musical roots to the band. His own first album was Miles Davis' "Miles Ahead," which he bought at the age of 16. He's been stuck on jazz ever since.

"I missed out on a whole lot of popular music. I feel like, with King Johnson, I'm getting exposed to some of that now," he said. "These guys are some of the greatest musicians I've ever played with."

Contact Brad Barnes, who has got to be a macho man, at (706) 571-8524 or bbarnes@ledger-enquirer.com