Customer Reviews

Since Way Back

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Mixing covers (Otis Spann's "Burning Fire" and Jimmy Rogers' "You're The One") and originals, instrumental and vocal tracks helps pace the album and keep it fresh. Both covers are among the album's best tracks. Oshawny does a fine job following the footsteps of one of the blues' best pianists on "Burning Fire." Hundt's mandolin lead - a phrase I never thought I'd ever use - re-creates a signature Chicago blues guitar lead, the kind Muddy Waters used to lay over Spann's piano work. "Union Meetin,'" the song that strays the furthest from the Chicago sound, is an old-timey, ragtime shuffle that sits nicely with the more hard-boiled tracks.

Half asleep this morning, listening to my NPR news, I heard some tight blues opening with a complex instrumentation that really impressed me for its originality. Not trusting those perhaps dream-infused perceptions I went online later to discover who was playing, what was playing. I found out:
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?saId=15836832>

These guys are tight, very Chicago-blues-based, and news to me! I thank Bob Boilen (and his crew?) at NPR for opening my awareness to this groove... interesting, too, that he chooses Chicago's Tortoise so often for the news show's story interludes due the wonderfully evocative subtlety of their compositions. What a range of top-notch music out of one town!

I gotta recommend it, even though I admit I have not heard the entire album. My guess is that if you have ever liked Chicago electric blues then you'll surely enjoy these guys!