On October 20, longtime Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson will release one of the best traditional blues albums of the year, Blues and Boogie, Vol. 1, via...
On October 20, longtime Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson will release one of the best traditional blues albums of the year, Blues and Boogie, Vol. 1, via Severn Records[1]. We know this to be true because we've heard it—over and over again.
As readers discovered when we premiered "Same Old Blues" last month[2], Wilson—a serious blues devotee—has gone back to basics on Blues and Boogie, Vol. 1, coming up with an album that sounds like it's from another era, an era when "real musicians played real instruments with real feeling" (to quote a comment on our "Same Old Blues" premiere[3]).
To truly drive home the point, we hereby present the exclusive premiere of "Searched All Over," a Kim Wilson original with tons of vintage barroom ambiance that feels, sounds and grinds like a long-lost Elmore James recording from 1957. You can hear it below.
The powerful track features Wilson on vocals and harmonica, Big Jon Atkinson and Billy Flynn on guitar (laying down some impassioned, Elmore James-style slide vibrato), Barrelhouse Chuck on piano, Larry Taylor on bass and Richard Innes on drums.
Sadly, Barrelhouse Chuck[4] and Richard Innes[5] have died since recording the song.
“I want to tell the real blues fans out there what a labor of love this project has been,” Wilson says in the liner notes. “I’ve been recording many, many tracks for a couple of years now, and time has just flown by. A couple of the greatest musicians that ever lived—Richard Innes and Barrelhouse Chuck—passed away during the process of making this [album]. One of their dreams was to see this stuff come out.
“So here it is, the first of many to come. This kind of