It probably comes as no surprise that, listening to the recent box set of The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ early years, it was some of the bluesier numbers from the band that most caught our ear. So we were of course delighted to read in the announcement of the latest solo album from T-Birds co-founder and frontman Kim Wilson that his Slow Burn (M.C. Records) “may be Kim’s deepest blues record ever”.
And it’s hard to argue that isn’t the case, with the album including covers of numerous classics from the likes of B.B. King, Otis Rush, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Magic Sam, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Milton, in addition to four bluesy originals that fit right into the mix, including a revisit of one from the T-Birds’ early catalog in the “Low-Down Woman” we mentioned in our recent review of the box set.
Don’t let the title of the album fool you: while numbers like B.B. King’s “Sweet Little Angel”, Magic Sam’s “Easy Baby”, Robert Nighthawk’s “The Time Has Come” and Otis Rush’s “So Many Roads” certainly represent the slow blues that have been a strength of Wilson’s since his start with the T-Birds (check out the band’s cover of Otis Rush’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby” from The Doc Pomus Sessions 1978 disc of the box set), and are indeed some of the best of the album’s dozen tracks, most of the tracks are a bit more on the mid- to up-tempo side, so there’s plenty here to keep things interesting.
Recorded over five different sessions that took place during 2014 and 2020, Slow Burn features a rotating lineup of backing musicians that included, among others, Barrelhouse Chuck (piano), Canned Heat’s Larry Taylor (bass), and Richard Innes (drums), each of whom has since passed; Nathan James (guitar) & the Rhythm Scratchers (Troy Sandow on bass and Marty Dodson on drums); guitarists Billy Flynn and Jon Atkinson; and Bob Welsh (guitar and piano on “Easy Baby”).
The album kicks off with a lightly swinging, horns-accented “I’m Trying” (Little Milton) on which Wilson is backed by Barrelhouse Chuck, Innes, James (on both guitar and bass) and Johnny Viau on horns, with much the same group joining him again, except with Flynn taking James’ place on guitar and Taylor on bass, a few songs later for the splendid “Sweet Little Angel”.
That’s the extent of Viau’s playing here but you do get to hear that same lineup of Flynn, Taylor, Barrelhouse Chuck, and Innes on several more numbers, including Howlin’ Wolf’s “Howlin’ for My Darlin'”, the slow blues “The Time Has Come” and a jaunty “Kansas City” (both from Robert Nighthawk). These guys are so good together that you hardly miss Wilson’s harmonica playing on these numbers, although there is plenty of that to be heard otherwise, including in full force on a “Keep Our Business To Yourself” (Sonny Boy Williamson II) on which Innes also plays, with James and Atkinson both on guitar. (Atkinson also joins Welsh on guitar for “Easy Baby”.)
James and his Rhythm Scratchers back Wilson on the remainder of the tracks (each, according to Wilson, done in one take), which comprise the four originals plus the soulful 9-minute closer “So Many Roads”, perhaps the album’s best number with its creeping, nearly two-minute instrumental intro before Wilson begins belting out his gritty vocals. Of the originals, two — the blazing “Boogie in E” and galloping “Gotta Have A Horse” — are instrumentals, with the band also offering a fresh, Charlie Musselwhite-sounding take on The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ “Low-Down Woman” along with a raw, shuffling country blues number in “Leaving You on My Mind”.
In the album’s liner notes, Wilson writes: “In my soul, I truly believe that true blues recordings of this magnitude are as rare as hen’s teeth”, lofty words from a man who, between his solo, Fabulous Thunderbirds, and other collaborative catalogues, has decades of terrific recordings to his name. But Slow Burn really is all that — check it out today!