Lil' Ed is Back! After a two year hiatus, Lil' Ed Williams and his great Chicago Blues band the "Blues Imperials" are storming the country with one of the hottest live shows you'll ever see, backed up by a smokin' new CD Get Wild!.
Get Wild! is a collection of 14 low-down Chicago Blues cuts. With so many types of Blues being played today, it's always great to hear the old Chi-town sound. There is something about a real Chicago Blues Band that's not found in other bands around the country. Alligator Records has made the Chicago sound their trademark and Lil' Ed's slide guitar and great rhythm section do Alligator proud.
Ed starts out funky with Singing Slide. His distinctive sound hits you right off the bat. Wail-age is what I call it. Not especially technical but definitely a party. And that's what the Blues are about. This is a no-holds-barred-straight-into-the-wind groove. And it's not about to stop. You Got To Stop keeps up the intensity but this time we're swinging. Drummer Kelly Littleton is da man. He is absolutely one of the best Chicago Blues drummers today. Coming from the old school of swing, not thrash. On the third cut, Standing On The Corner, we get a short-but-sweet shuffle, a trademark Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials shuffle. This is what I came for. If a Lil' Ed shuffle doesn't get you moving, you're dead. I'm talking stone-cold dead!
Too Late comes right on time. Slowing it down and putting down the slide for a bit, this is a slow tale of lost love. "One teardrop too late." Aw man that's the Blues. Compact Man get the place rockin' and Ed puts his slide back on. They don't call him Lil' Ed for nothing and he sings about it in this cut. He be tight! She Don't Love Me No More sits atop a mambo groove and trucks right along. He gets a little goofy in the middle, but then again this isn't brain surgery. The train groove is next. Nothing I Wouldn't Do finds Littleton and Williams wearing out their respective instruments. Time to slow it down again with Change My Way Of Living. Ed gets personal with us, talking his way into the cut. Even though the tune is in a minor key, Ed's lead strays into major mode (because his guitar is tuned to a major chord). For most musicians this is an unacceptable clash, but Ed gets away with it. Sometimes it pays to be raw. Getting off the "I did the woman wrong" vein, Independent Superwoman shuffles along celebrating today's modern women. A bluesman's dream! A Tequilla sort of groove is next with the Monkey And The Rabbit. Ed tells a fairy tale story here with a moral. I didn't know monkeys ate rabbits.
Too Late comes right on time. Slowing it down and putting down the slide for a bit, this is a slow tale of lost love. "One teardrop too late." Aw man that's the Blues. Compact Man get the place rockin' and Ed puts his slide back on. They don't call him Lil' Ed for nothing and he sings about it in this cut. He be tight! She Don't Love Me No More sits atop a mambo groove and trucks right along. He gets a little goofy in the middle, but then again this isn't brain surgery. The train groove is next. Nothing I Wouldn't Do finds Littleton and Williams wearing out their respective instruments. Time to slow it down again with Change My Way Of Living. Ed gets personal with us, talking his way into the cut. Even though the tune is in a minor key, Ed's lead strays into major mode (because his guitar is tuned to a major chord). For most musicians this is an unacceptable clash, but Ed gets away with it. Sometimes it pays to be raw. Getting off the "I did the woman wrong" vein, Independent Superwoman shuffles along celebrating today's modern women. A bluesman's dream! A Tequilla sort of groove is next with the Monkey And The Rabbit. Ed tells a fairy tale story here with a moral. I didn't know monkeys ate rabbits.
Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials
At the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
May 1999
It was a hot spring day in New Orleans when I saw Lil' Ed and his great band perform an afternoon set. I hadn't seen Ed in several years and heard that he had fallen on some hard times and lost his band. But I was glad to see the guys were back behind him as I wandered to the House of Blues stage to catch the set. I knew they were back, but I didn't realize they were really back. Ed's set was one of the most scorching sets of Blues at this years fest. With a vitality I had never seen, the band blasted through several tunes from their new record Get Wild! The highlight was when Ed, leaping straight up in the air with every slide whammy, leaped right off stage into the seething crowd. We went crazy. Although the sound man was asleep and Ed's guitar was buried in the mix for most of the show, it didn't matter. Energy like this transcends sound problems. This year it was easy to spot the hot shows at Jazzfest. All you had to do is look for the cloud of dust rising above one of the many stages and you knew that's where the party was. Lil' Ed had us choking in the dust we raised. A "must see" show.
