Although bluesman Grady Champion‘s soulful 2014 album debut on the Jackson, Mississippi Malaco Records label, Bootleg Whiskey, was a magnificent one, his latest recording finds Champion bringing things even closer to home for the longtime soul, blues and gospel label, which through the decades has featured such names as Bobby “Blue” Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Dorothy Moore, and Little Milton on its roster of artists, with Champion paying homage to another of Malaco’s most successful musicians on Steppin’ In: A Tribute to ZZ Hill.

Here, Champion covers Hill’s biggest hits, from the gritty soul grooves of the opening “Down Home Blues” (George Jackson) and “Someone Else is Steppin’ In” (Denise LaSalle) to swaying numbers involving affairs of the heart like “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing” (Little Johnny Taylor) with its stinging guitar from Eddie Cotton and Jackson’s soft, slow “Cheating in the Next Room”, many of the dozen tracks accented by female backing vocals and horns (when Champion himself isn’t blowing away on harmonica, such as on the particularly gravelly-vocaled “Shade Tree Mechanic”, slow-grooved “Open House at My House” and truly grinding “Bump and Grind”).
Continue reading