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Lucky Guy!
Alligator Records
About the previous album by The Nick Moss Band, "The High Cost of Low Living," I observed that "there is strong and varied material (including choice songs to cover), very good singing, and excellent playing. This is also wonderfully recorded, resulting in a superb straight-no-chaser Chicago blues recording." Now, guitarist and vocalist Moss, along with harmonica wizard and vocalist Dennis Gruenling, return with this new disc. Others in the band include Taylor Streif on keyboards and background vocals; Rodrigo Mantovani on bass and background vocals; and Patrick Seals on drums and background vocals. Kid Andersen adds rhythm guitar to several tracks as well as baritone guitar and mandolin, and Mighty Mike Welch plays lead guitar on one track. The album was co-produced by Moss and Andersen and recorded and mixed by Andersen at Greaseland Studios. 13 of the 14 tracks are originals with Moss having written 11 and Gruenling two.
Moss plays and sings with considerable authority, although 'occasionally' his diction can come off as a little mush-mouthed (in the manner of Junior Well and Carey Bell) as on the rocking paean to his hometown "312 Blood" where Moss celebrates his hometown of Chicago. Streif takes a two-fisted solo, while Gruenling wails on his break before Moss adds to the instrumental fire. Johnny O'Neal Johnson's "Ugly Woman" shows the wit Moss's performance can bring. It is one of the tracks with uncredited horns with Gruenling riffing behind the vocal, and Streif takes a rollicking solo. The title track is an upbeat shuffle with scintillating guitar and a solid vocal before Gruenling's soaring sax-like harp solo. Moss' own solo shows how much of the Chicago blues guitar tradition he has absorbed in developing his superb attack.
Moss' "Sanctified, Holy And Hateful," set to the melodic theme of "Half Ain't Been Told," is a stellar slow blues about the hypocrisy of certain evangelicals with a terrific vocal, Gruenling's robust chromatic harp playing and Moss playing with so much passion here. Gruenling shows himself to be a capable vocalist on his hot shuffle, "Movin' On My Way," with Moss and Kid Andersen taking crisp solos and trading fours with Gruenling's swooping horn-like harp taking this performance out. Moss follows this up with the relaxed, mellow feel of "Tell Me There's Nothing Wrong," with Gruenling taking a tasty solo in a Sonny Boy Williamson vein followed by Moss' shattering solo. "Me and My Friends" is set to a groove that evokes Phillip Walker and Jimmy McCracklin ("Steppin' Up In Class") with horns adding to the atmosphere here. "Simple Minded" had Andersen on mandolin, and the performance brings back memories of the late Johnny Young with Gruenling playing in a Walter Horton manner and Streif hinting at Otis Spann.
"Hot Zucchini" is an instrumental in the vein of Booker T & the MGs with greasy Hammond B-3 from Streif, stinging guitar from Moss and riffing horns. Another instrumental, "Cutting the Monkey's Tail," provides space for Gruenling and Moss to shine. The concluding track, "The Comet," is an atmospheric Muddy Waters styled blues that is a tribute to the late Mike Ledbetter with whom both Moss and Monster Mike Welch had played. The two duet with Welch taking the lead (and soloing in accompanying Moss' vocal. While the contributions of Moss, Grueling and Streif have been spotlighted, one cannot ignore the first-rate backing provided by Mantovani and Seals. This is one terrific band, and given the authority and imagination that Moss, Gruenling, and Streif play with, blues fans are in luck with the fabulous "Lucky Guy!"
I received my review copy from Alligator. This review appeared in the September-October 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 386) although I made minor stylistic changes. Here is a recent performance by Nick Moss with Dennis Gruenling.
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