Antone’s 50th Presents Chicago Bound: Honoring Muddy, Cliff & Blue
11 tracks; 35 minutes
When the four-disc box set Antone’s: 50 Years Of The Blues was released last year there was clearly some material that could not be fitted in, so we now have this album which brings together musicians who played at Antone’s to celebrate blues from Chicago, Texas and Louisiana. There are so many musicians involved here that it makes sense to detail the players track by track, but suffice it to say that this is really a ‘cream of the crop’ collection.
First of all, there are three tunes directly associated with Muddy Waters. The title track is a Jimmy Rogers tune, here in a great duo performance from Muddy’s last guitarist, John Primer, and Steve Bell, son of one-time Muddy harp player Carey Bell; hard to comprehend that just two musicians can make such an exciting sound! A second Jimmy Rogers tune, “Act Like You Love Me”, is well delivered by Lurrie Bell with Anson Funderburgh and Derek O’Brien providing rhythm guitar alongside Nick Connolly on piano, Scott Nelson on bass, Jay Moeller on drums and Mark Kazanoff and Joe Sublett on saxes. John Primer closes the album with a full Chicago band performance of “Got My Mojo Working” with Lil’ Ed Williams sharing the guitar duties, Steve Bell again on harp, Sumito Ariyoshi on piano, Rodrigo Mantovani on bass and Kenny ‘Beedy Eyes’ Smith on drums, also the son of a former Muddy drummer, Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith.
Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland is celebrated with two songs here. First Kam Franklin delivers a great vocal turn on “I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me)”, her powerful vocals beautifully framed by Bobby’s drummer son Rod leading The Dreamers: Brad Stivers and Zach Ernst on guitar, Scott Bomar on bass, Archie ‘Hubbie’ Turner on organ and a horn section of Marc Franklin and Alex Schuetrumpf on trumpet and Art Edmaiston and Tom Link on sax; then we get Kim Wilson leading The Fabulous Thunderbirds through “I’m Not Ashamed”, a 1959 Duke hit for Bobby. The T-Birds current line-up of Jay Moeller on guitar, Bob Welsh on organ, Steve Kirsty on bass and Rudy Albin on drums is supplemented by the same horn section, plus Billy Flynn on guitar. Kim’s vocal is great and the whole tune superb, one of the real standouts here.
Clifton Chenier often brought zydeco to Antone’s and his “One Step At A Time” gets the star treatment with Ivan Neville on vocals and organ, CC Adcock guitar and vocals, Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood sharing guitar duties, Jimmie Vaughan leaving his guitar at home to play some high-pitched harp in Jimmy Reed style, Steve Riley’s accordion and Curley Taylor’s rubboard bringing the Louisiana feel whilst the rhythm section is ‘Big’ Robert St Julien (who played with Clifton) on drums and Chuck Bush on bass. Jimmy Reed is directly represented by “Baby What’s Wrong”, sung by Lavelle White who was 95 when this was recorded in 2025, with Marcia Ball on piano, Derek O’Brien on guitar and Mark Kazanoff on harp. Anson Funderburgh covers Albert Collins’ instrumental, “Backstroke”, backed by Nick Connolly on organ, Sarah Brown on bass and Jason Corbiere on drums, plus Mark Kazanoff and John Mills of The Texas Horns. Doyle Bramhall II does a storming version of Hound Dog Taylor’s “Give Me Back My Wig” on which he sings and plays guitar, bass and drums, the drum-heavy version also having JJ Johnson and Jay Moeller behind the kit and Derek O’Brien on second guitar.
In terms of Clifford Antone, the whole album is a form of tribute to the man who founded the Austin club in 1975. We get to hear Clifford himself when he tells us that “The Blues Is So Big” in an audio extract, immediately followed by a tune from one time leader of ZZ Top Billy Gibbons and his current BFG band, Mike ‘The Drifter’ Flanigin on keys and drummer Chris ‘Whipper’ Layton. They deliver “Hangin’ On A Cliff” which pays tribute to Antone on a heavy shuffle with Billy’s deep, gruff vocals.
There is plenty of great blues to enjoy here and a who’s who of current blues musicians, from Austin and Chicago in particular.
