The Rave Ups

The sixth release from the veteran foursome is another rollicking, electrified romp through old-school Chicago boogie blues. Lil' Ed Williams is the nephew of, and was schooled by, slide guitar legend J.B. Hutto, so it's no surprise that the Blues Imperials' sound is driven by the high-octane, raw, bottleneck attack popularized by Hutto and the great Elmore James. Both are covered here, and even though Williams's originals adhere to the standard blues format, the energy generated by this live-in-the-studio recording could power a small city. You can practically see the sweat dripping down Ed's fez-covered head as he charges through the humorous yet driving "Icicles in My Meatloaf" and the fast shuffle of "Broken Promises"…

The sixth release from the veteran foursome is another rollicking, electrified romp through old-school Chicago boogie blues. Lil' Ed Williams is the nephew of, and was schooled by, slide guitar legend J.B. Hutto, so it's no surprise that the Blues Imperials' sound is driven by the high-octane, raw, bottleneck attack popularized by Hutto and the great Elmore James. Both are covered here, and even though Williams's originals adhere to the standard blues format, the energy generated by this live-in-the-studio recording could power a small city. You can practically see the sweat dripping down Ed's fez-covered head as he charges through the humorous yet driving "Icicles in My Meatloaf" and the fast shuffle of "Broken Promises"…

The Artwoods' only album was an enjoyable mixture of club-oriented soul, R&B, and jazz with a strong organ spice, although it found them falling seriously behind their contemporaries in the British R&B scene in a crucial respect. Not one of the dozen tracks was a group original, and their vocal and interpretive ability was not so strong as to make that shortfall an irrelevance. Still, it did give them a chance to stretch into some jazzy workouts and rave-ups that probably couldn't have been contained on 45s, particularly the swinging cover of "Walk on the Wild Side" (with excellent jazz organ by Jon Lord); Allen Toussaint's "Can You Hear Me," with an arrangement reminiscent of the Spencer Davis Group; and Bobby Bland's "Don't Cry No More," one of their best R&B covers…

When they were first formed in 1972 by vocalist Mark Wenner and guitarist Jimmy Thackery, the Nighthawks were unabashed blues-rockers, filtering the Chicago sound of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf through an East Coast bar band's sensibilities. Not much has really changed during the 27 years between their debut album and the release of 1999's Still Wild. The Nighthawks have branched out a little in the years following Thackery's late-'80s departure, the band mixing elements of classic R&B, roots rock, and country into their hard-hitting, crowd-pleasing performances. Still Wild furthers their gradual evolution into a powerful genre-jumping outfit, the band throwing out typical blues covers like Willie Dixon's "Tiger in Your Tank" and Muddy Waters' "Read Way Back" alongside raucous, country-flavored rave-ups like Charlie Rich's "Washed My Hands."