If you didn’t get enough of that Antone’s sound with the expansive 50th anniversary box set about which we told you earlier this year, you’ll be happy to hear about another great compilation just released to commemorate the club’s golden anniversary and featuring many of the same artists heard on the earlier set, including Texas natives and longtime transplants such as Jimmie Vaughan, Billy Gibbons, Kim Wilson, Lavelle White, Doyle Bramhall II, Anson Funderburgh, and Kam Franklin, as well as players from Chicago, Louisiana, and beyond like John Primer, Lil’ Ed Williams, Ivan Neville, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Lurrie Bell, Marcia Ball, and CC Adcock.
The first release from the Clifford Antone Foundation’s Blues Till 2 Recording Co., Antone’s 50th Presents Chicago Bound includes 11 newly recorded tracks of just the kind of music and artists you’ve long been able to hear at Antone’s, including such blues classics as the chugging opening “Chicago Bound” (Jimmy Rogers) and closing “Got My Mojo Working” (Muddy Waters), both featuring John Primer on vocals and guitar and Steve Bell on harmonica, with the latter also including Lil’ Ed Williams on guitar and vocals (including some fabulous interplay between Primer and Williams on the song’s final chorus) and Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith on drums (along with Sumito Aritoshi on piano and Rodrigo Montovani on bass), Hound Dog Taylor’s “Give Me Back My Wig” (grittily delivered here by Doyle Bramhall II, including a particularly biting last line, backed by longtime Antone’s house band guitarist Derek O’Brien and J.J. Johnson and Jay Moeller on drums), and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)”, with vocals from Kam Franklin and drums from Bland’s own son Rodd Bland.
Lurrie Bell (vocals and guitar) gruffly covers another Jimmy Rogers tune in the shuffling “Act Like You Love Me” (backed by, among others, O’Brien and Anson Funderburgh on guitar and Jay Moeller on drums) while Kim Wilson & The Fabulous Thunderbirds (featuring both Johnny Moeller and Chicago’s Billy Flynn on guitar) return to Bland’s catalog for the swaying “I’m Not Ashamed”. Funderburgh provides a great take on Albert Collins’ instrumental “Backstroke” (with some magnificent work on organ from Nick Connolly, along with saxophone from Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff and John Mills of the Texas Horns and bass from another of the club’s house band players, Sarah Brown) and Lavelle Wihite helping to round out the set with Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What’s Wrong”, backed by Marcia Ball on piano, O’Brien on guitar, Kazanoff on harmonica, and others.
In addition to a spoken interlude from club founder Clifford Antone on what a certain politician today might call the “big”ness of the blues, you’ll also hear a splendid cover of King of Zydeco Clifton Chenier’s (who played at Antone’s on the club’s opening night) “One Step At A Time” performed by Ivan Neville and CC Adcock, with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on guitar and Jimmie Vaughan providing not only backing vocals but also some surprise, Jimmy Reed-like harmonica.
The sole original here, a playful, grungy “Hangin’ on a Cliff” from Billy F. Gibbons and the BFGs–Mike “The Drifter” Flanigin on organ and Chris “Whipper” Layton (Double Trouble, Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band) on drums–was penned by Gibbons just for this project in honor of Clifford (“Cliff”) Antone.
Don’t mistake this as just a collection of leftovers from the earlier anniversary box set; Chicago Bound is a terrific compilation that features a strong roster of some of Antone’s closest friends, including across some stellar collaborations, and easily stands on its own among the year’s very best albums, in addition to making quite a nice companion piece to the Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues set!