We’d be lying if we said we haven’t enjoyed the last few albums from Chicago’s Nick Moss Band, with Lead Belly descendant Michael Ledbetter helping to bring some additional soulfulness to the band’s sound. But it was Moss’ earlier, more blues-focused recordings that initially caught our ear and that we’ve always tended to prefer, even as Moss and the band have — quite successfully — forayed into jam band, blues-rock and soul territory on more recent offerings.
With Ledbetter having moved on to collaborate with guitarist Monster Mike Welch, Moss has made a few moves of his own, signing with Chicago’s Alligator Records label and adding blues harmonica player and vocalist Dennis Gruenling as a featured guest with the band, including on their Alligator debut The High Cost of Low Living, which we’re happy to report is a triumphant return to the more traditional Chicago and jump blues and old school rock stylings heard on Moss’ earliest recordings, with Moss pointing out in the album’s press materials that the deep blues “really is the music I love the most”.
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We’ve been fortunate to hear quite a bit from John Mayall in the past four to five years, between several new studio albums (
With its haunting vocals and tough, gritty guitar riffs, the edgy, lightly rocking opener “When I Go” establishes right up front that the pair hasn’t lost any of the fire they displayed on their debut release, a point reiterated through later uptempo tracks such as “The Bottle Wins Again” and “Movin’ On”, the latter also serving as a great example of Harper’s brilliant songwriting, with lyrics that include “You practice law without a license, psychology too/ but your PhD is in givin’ me the blues” and “you get away with murder, you got a way with words/ speakin’ in a language that nobody’s ever heard” as the song indeed gets you moving with its greasy harmonica and a tearing guitar solo.
The eldest Morganfield son’s third release on Severn Records following his award-winning Son of the Seventh Son and collaboration with harmonica player Kim Wilson on 
Recorded in various cities throughout the U.S., from L.A. to Nashville to New York City and Boston, Strange Angels: In Flight with Elmore James (Sylvan Songs Records) features a mostly house band (dubbed Elmore’s Latest Broomdusters) joined by a rotating line-up of guest vocalists and musicians. Although not all of the interpretations here are presented in a straight blues fashion, with Rodney Crowell and Jamey Johnson, for example, adding a country-fried flavor (through both their vocals and acoustic guitars) to songs like “Shake Your Money Maker” and “It Hurts Me Too”, respectively, and other tracks having a jazzy, Americana, soul or pop style, the end result is a diverse, intriguing set that blues fans will easily appreciate and welcome to their collections.