Willie Buck Willie Buck Way

Willie Buck
Willie Buck Way
Delmark Records

Reviewing Delmark's 2010 expanded release of Willie Buck's 1982 album, "The Life I Love," I observed that the music was "strong traditionally rooted Chicago blues that one hears played so well less frequently nearly three decades later." Buck, whose career extends back decades, remains a strong blues singer who is displayed on the 17 new selections on this new release. Backing Buck, who is solely a songwriter and singer, are Billy Flynn on guitar; Thaddeus Krolicki on guitar; Scott Dirks on harmonica; Johnny 'Fingers' Iguana on piano; Bob Stroger on bass and Jimmy Mayes on drums. Big Spider Beck plays harmonica on three selections and piano on two while Harmonica Hinds plays harp on two.

Muddy Waters is a strong influence on Buck's music as one can hear on Billy Flynn's original, "Can't Say Something Good About Me." But while he delivers a vocal robustly, he does not try to sound like Muddy. Buck also sings with a relaxed, swinging quality as on the opening "You Want Me To Trust You." The backing is solid, idiomatic Chicago blues with the Krolicki taking most of the leads while Iguana impresses with his Otis Spann influenced playing. Dirks is a more than capable harmonica player while Beck evokes Mojo Buford on "Can't Say Something …," which also has a stinging Flynn solo under a spoken part. Buck's capabilities as a singer are also displayed on his "There's a Woman," a song with a backing evoking Howlin' Wolf .

There is plenty of variety on this album including the unplugged "My Mind Might Freeze Up" and "Twenty-Four Seveni" with Krolicki on acoustic guitar and Hinds on harmonica. There is also strong, relaxed shuffle rendition of "Crawlin' King Snake" which is usually taken at a slow tempo. Beck rips off a strong harmonica solo on this. Another standout track is Buck's sermon to his fellow men, "The Men Ought To Learn (To Treat The Women Right)," with superb backing and a focused solo from Krolicki.

While the title track musically hints at "Blow Wind Blow," Buck lets us know that he is a blues legend and an all-around man with Iguana playing  fine blues piano. Billy Flynn plays some Muddy Waters' styled slide guitar on an excellent rendition of Leroy Carr's "Blues Before Sunrise," that owes much to Muddy Waters' recording of this song. With echoes of the melody for "Sloppy Drunk," "I'd Rather Leave You," closes this album on an easy rocking vein. It has another solid Flynn solo. Other selections are generally of similar quality with strong vocals and wonderfully backing. Like Willie Buck's prior recordings, "Willie Buck Way" is an excellent album of traditionally styled Chicago blues.

I received my review copy from Delmark Records. This review appeared in the March-April 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 383), although I may have made some minor changes. Here is Willie singing "Blow Wind Blow." Please excuse the slightly distorted audio.