“Big” Al’s Blues Howlers With Jim Liban! – Get It While It’s Hot
self release
10 songs time – 42:22
Buy one harmonica player, get two free. If you’re a fan of harmonica blues, you’ve come to the right place! “Big” Al Dorn and Benny Richun share harmonica and guitar duties along with special guest Jim Liban featured on harmonica and vocals on two tracks. This Milwaukee, Wisconsin band has “Big” Al handling all the other vocals. They are steeped in The Chicago Blues style. Although “the Mississippi Saxophone” is the pervasive instrument here, the guys handle the guitar chores well, supported by a first rate rhythm section. All songs are written by “Big” Al or Jim Liban.
The album opens and closes with harmonica based instrumentals featuring Benny Richun doing the harp honors. The opener “Jack Hammer” is boogie based and a tad repetitive. He fares better on the livelier title track “Get It While It’s Hot”, which it definitely is. Al turns in a good showing on guitar on this one as well as throughout the proceedings.
“I’m A Sinner” and “Without Her” are slow blues with Al on vocals and harmonica on the first and Jim Liban doing honors on both for the latter. The second is a slow shuffle. Al handles vocals and guitar on the jive talking “The Cadillac Kid”. Al and Benny double up on harmonicas on the energetic “Let You Go” to great effect. Jim Liban checks in for his second vocal and harmonica turn on the Chicago style blues “Talk Is Cheap”.
Al and Benny team up for a harmonica duel on the hard charging “Boogie Jump”. It’s a good prelude to the afore mentioned title track that closes out things grand Chi-Town form.
What more could an upstanding blues lover ask for than over forty minutes of solid blues goodness executed by top shelf practitioners of the genre? Bands like this are “keepers of the flame”. Any music aficionado will derive much pleasure from this recording. What ever the case, music of this quality needs your support. Chase away those closed in blues we are experiencing.
