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sound. ‘Rather Be Up’ has a C&W twang but ‘Damn Good and Ready’ brings us back to the
blues with biting lead guitar from Chavez and Larry’s chugging rhythm guitar and ‘Deepest
Blue’ is a 50’s-style rock and roll ballad.

More rock and roll with ‘Rock and Roll Soul’ with a sax solo from Eric Spaulding, then we get
two songs about drinking ‘I’m Buying’ and ‘Ice in my Whiskey’ - where Larry tries to persuade
the bartender not to dilute his whiskey with ice (good luck with that in America!) The last
three songs are all 50s-style R&B, again drenched in reverb and very atmospheric. As good as
the rhythm section are here (and they are really good) the real stars are the guitars, both
rhythm and lead, Mr. Andersen gets an outstanding sound for them which is just a joy to listen
to.

In truth the songs and the playing here are all fairly routine but it is the overall sound that just
lifts this above the average – I think that Kid Andersen is just a genius in producing blues, the
best blues studio and producer currently in America(?).
Graham Harrison

The Nick Moss Band—Get Your Back Into It—Alligator
Records ASIN: B0C4GTWNCP

This is the third record to feature Chicago’s Nick Moss band and
New Jersey harp maestro Dennis Gruenling following on from
2019’s “Lucky Guy” and 2018’s “The High Cost of Low Living”.

I saw them live in late 2019 just before the Pandemic and they
can certainly also deliver live. We get under way here with an
up-tempo jump blues ‘The Bait in the Snare’ complete with
riffing brass and a great solo from Gruenling, while ‘Aurelie’ has
a more swampy sound with cheesy organ and cod French.

The title track is blasting ensemble Chicago blues just like clas-
sic Muddy with the guitar, harp and piano all intertwining and the rhythm section of Rodrigo
Mantovani (bass) and Pierce Downer (drums) powering everything along.

Gruenling takes over the vocals from Nick on ‘Man on the Move’ and also delivers blasting
chromatic harp. We finally slow down with ‘Living in Heartbreak’ with Nick on vocals and
electric slide guitar. ‘It Shocks Me Out’ picks up the pace. It’s a delicious stop-time blues and
both ‘Out in the Woods’ and ‘Choose Wisely’ feature brass; with the latter featuring nice piano
from Taylor Streiff.

The Hooker-style boogie ‘Your Bark is Worse Than Your Bite’ again has Dennis out front on
vocals and harp and ‘Bones’ Cantina’ is a Latin-flavoured instrumental in the ‘La Cucaracha’
mould.

We check out with another instrumental ‘Scratch ‘n’ Sniff’—this time a reverb-drenched
50s-style number a la Link Wray.

I think that this is Nick, Dennis and the band’s best album of the three and they have obviously
used the four years since the last release to work on writing the great songs featured here and
to sharpen up their playing.

Graham Harrison