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point of view. This batch seemed to fit well together and offered me the opportunity to include enough
different flavours of Blues to keep things flowing.

LL: You have some top-notch Los Angeles players on this album with whom you’ve been working

for quite a while. Please tell us all about the musicians who contributed to this work.

MPG: Well Bill Bates and I agreed that Dave Kida was our first choice to play the drums. I’d been
playing on and off with Dave for almost 40 years. We went into Pacifica Studios in West Los Angeles
(owned by my favourite engineer Glenn Nishida) and cut our five songs plus one extra rhythm track
for a song that dated back to my Big Buck days, ‘Babblin’ Blues’ which my old friend and bandmate
Junior Watson was generous enough to play guitar on. For the next session at Pacifica, I utilized the
M.P.G. Band (Debra Dobkin on drums, percussion and vocals, and Nick Kirgo on guitar and vocals).
Guest artists include Benny Yee (Hammond organ), Billy Watts (rhythm guitar), and Michael Fell

(Blues harp), all of whom I’ve known for decades. They definitely brought their talent and soul to
take it all to another level. My familiarity and closeness with these folks made this album a very
comfortable one to record.

LL: How has your pandemic experience played out?

MPG: Well, I lost some close friends to this virus, but I never suffered like so many others have.
Hard as I tried, I’m not sure I handled the whole thing particularly well. My wife Sheri suffers from
a severely compromised immune system and the thought of losing her has weighed heavily (and
constantly) on my mind for two and a half years now. Hopefully we’re coming out the other end of
this tragedy and can get on with our lives. This new album was about the only “ray of sunshine”

through all this, which gives it a very special place in my heart!

LL: What can your fans look forward to coming up for you?

MPG: Really hoping to get out there with my wonderful band, to share this music with as many of
our equally wonderful blues fans as possible. Hearing these tracks being played by my DJ friends has
been extremely gratifying, but only live shows can air out that whole different side of my soul and

offer a truly communal sharing that doesn’t happen anywhere else. This is what we live for…

~ © Lawrence Lebo 2022

Lawrence Lebo is an award winning, critically acclaimed Blues recording artist living in Los
Angeles, CA, USA. She can be found on the web at www.lawrencelebo.com