Sauce Boss – 100% Pure
Burning Disk, Inc/Peckerwood Publishing (Self-Released)
12 tracks
Sauce Boss is Bill Wharton, a mostly one man band who mixes true life into his songs. It’s perhaps an odd life as evidenced by some of the material in the songs, but interesting none the less! Hailing from the Motor City, Wharton wails on his guitar and lays out the lyrics with abandon.
“Zipper Bird” opens the set. See? I told you. Guess what that one is about! There is a nice groove that he lays out as he sings a migratory story. “Marquis De Swamp” is a crazy and wild slide ride on his guitar. His crazed vocals are only topped by the spaced out guitar. More blatant innuendos fill the song as Wharton moans and laughs like a madman. “Gonna Be All Right” hearkens to better times as the dark is before the dawn, but Wharton has hope as he repeatedly screams out the title as chorus to the tune. “Chains” is not the pleasant Beatle’s number but a tune about how love is a double edged sword and we hold down the ones we love. It’s always good to take relationships to this high level. “Delta 9 Blues” tells us a little THC not only helps pain and glaucoma but also clears the mind. An odd, throbbing beat and groove just makes this more out there. “Peckerwood” ends the first half of this set of tunes and while I am half way through I was probably more lost that when I started. It’s a funky tune about a town that is out there with grass all colors of the rainbow. Great groove!
Next up is “Chicago Combat Zone” where Wharton hearkens back to his early youth on the South Side where his Dad was beaten with a black jack when Wharton was just 3 years old. They moved, but Wharton still reflects about the town with over 2,000 shootings per year. He’s going back but leaving his gun home because they don’t need any more in that combat zone. “Cadillac of a Woman” is a beautiful country blues slide piece with whacked out lyrics about the Virgin Mary. He sings that, “she’s a diamond deluxe, a Cadillac of a Woman.” Yes, it’s weird. “Hey Wilbur” is a rocking little number. It goes down from there in a twisted call and response sort of way. Next up is “Sun” where the song relates a little sun in your face is a good thing. A tight groove, it’s pretty weird in comparison because it’s pretty normal. “Song of the Irish Band” is a Celtic sort of piece on how songs come into being and give us life. I was confused but I think I liked it. “Outlaw Blues” tells us of Wharton’s arrest in 1984 for cultivating weed. His timein Couty Jail is immortalized here. He shouts out the lyric on top of some heavy guitar. Wild. Sort of .
OK, it’s odd. The Sauce Boss appears in chef attire, with the large, white floppy hat atop his head with beaming visage. 7 of the 12 cuts are marked with an asterisk in the accompanying flyer to denote they are bluesiest, just in case the listener was confused. Somehow, I think I’d like to go see this guy and listen live. It would have to be some twisted, crazy fun. Until then, I’ll have to just savor the Sauce Boss CD. Or maybe not again…
