Giles Robson & John Primer – Ten Chicago Blues Classics

Independent Release

www.gilesrobson.com

www.johnprimerblues.com

10 tracks – 39 minutes

Giles Robson and John Primer are two masters of their instruments. The two teamed up as a duo for the recording of this album. Giles on harmonica and performing vocals on seven tracks with John on guitar, the duo tackle covers from some of the Chicago blues greats.

Giles was born in in the island state of Jersey located in the English Channel in 1978. Hohner recognizes him as one of the best harmonica players in the world today. That recognition led to an appearance on the prestigious blues label, Alligator Records, where he is the only European artist to ever appear on the label. That album was with a teaming of Joe Louis Walker and Bruce Katz in 2018, a collaboration that led him to a Blues Music Award for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in 2019 from The Blues Foundation in Memphis. That win makes him one of only three European artists to ever win a Blues Music Award. The other two are Eric Clapton and Peter Green. His annual tours take him to many countries around the world.

John Primer is certainly well-known in the blues community. He was born in 1945 in Mississippi. He moved to Chicago in 1963 where he quickly became recognized as a guitar virtuoso. He worked in Junior Well’s Band for seven years, toured with Willie Dixon and The Chicago Blues Allstars, and then joined Muddy Water’s Band in 1979, where he remained until Muddy’s death in 1983. He then joined Magic Slim and The Teardrops for 13 years and finally went solo in 1996. He has been nominated three times for a Grammy Award, has received many nominations and awards from the Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards, and was inducted into The Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in Memphis in 2023.

Giles organized a “Chicago Blues Legends” tour in Europe in 2023. John Primer was one of the involved legends. He enjoyed working with Giles and so returned for a follow-up tour with Giles and his band in 2024 and a few stops along the way, including in Jersey, where they performed as a duo. This led to a decision for the duo to record an album before John returned home.

The album opens with Muddy Water’s “Blow Wind Blow”. While this song, as well as many of the other songs on the album will be well-known to most blues lovers, the duo capably provides original takes on the songs. Giles’ vocals are strong without trying to shout as Muddy did. John provides a smooth groove while Giles’ harmonica slides in and out through the song. Next up is Little Water’s “My Babe”, written by Willie Dixon. Giles demonstrates his vocal versatility, delivering a soulful take on the song. “Rollin’ Stone” was Muddy Water’s take on an older Delta song, “Catfish Blues” dating back to the 1920’s. Their take on the songs intertwines their two instruments perfectly.

Little Walter’s “Juke” is a jumping instrumental giving both men an opportunity to really stretch out.  Sonny Boy Williamson II’s “Let Me Explain” continues the drive with John’s backing of Giles’ jumping harp. The duo returns to Muddy Waters with “Long Distance Call”, a very slow-burn blues with some sharp harp inserts.

John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, the original Sonny Boy is generally recognized as one of the first solo blues harmonica players. His “Dealin’ with the Devil” tells the story of a man who loses the love of his woman after he says, “I should have been sleeping with the devil, my woman doesn’t love me no more”. Giles again shows his proficiency with the harp. Muddy Water’s “Got My Mojo Working” is translated into a second instrumental with the two letting loose on a powerful rendition of the song. Eddie Taylor’s “Bad Boy” is probably the album’s song that is most closely follows the vocals of the original, but the duo’s prowess still moves it into an original sound. The album ends with a final instrumental version of Little Walter’s “Last Night”. The song allows both performers to have turns at the lead while blending together at points in the song.

The songs presented here are from the late 1940’s to early 1950’s, Giles and John give them all a fresh take that should appeal to lovers of the songs, while keeping their relevance for a new audience. This is certainly an album that blues lovers should give a listen to discover the innovation and energy that can be generated for these older songs.

Writer John Sacksteder is a retired civil engineer in Louisville, Kentucky who has a lifelong love of music, particularly the blues. He is currently the Editor of the Kentuckiana Blues Society’s monthly newsletter.

Heavy Drunk and Watermelon Slim – Bluesland Theme Park

Heavydrunk Records

https://heavydrunk.com

https://watermelonslim.com

11 tracks/34 minutes

Theme parks are full of thrill rides and this album certain has it’s share. The roller coaster of musical highs and lows by Heavydrunk and the primordial ride on Slim’s slide guitar make for two different but equally intriguing rides. William Homans III and Rob Robinson are Slim and Heavydrunk. With 14 and 11 albums respectively to their credits, and this is their fourth collaborative effort. The guttural slide and vocals of Watermelon Slim and juxtaposed from Heavydrunk’s more approachable vocals yet still raw and music. A nine-piece band back these two.

Robinson and Homans handle all the lead vocals. Slim handles the harp while he, Heavydrunk and Kurt Stowe play guitar. Ricky Burkhead is on drums, percussion and steel drums. John Allouise and Brian Allen are the bassists while the backing vocalists are Etta Britt, Tabitha Fair and Maggie Richardson, Keyboardists are Kevin McKendree and Eric Bikales. The horn section is Roy Agee ion trombone, Emmanuel Echern and Lorenzo Molina on trumpet,  and Evan Cobb and Maxwell Abrams on saxophone. Last but not least is Scotty Sanders who adds his steel guitar on “Watermelon Girl.”

The title cut opens the set. It’s a wild ride built on using circus music as a driving and 199 mile an hour blues cut. It’s a carnival of amazing sounds and great opener. “New Wine” follows, a funky song with Etta Brutt in support vocally. Funky and slick, the horns and guitar make for a full and vibrant sound. Another great cut. Then it’s Slim’s time to shine on “Little Bighorn.” we gets his deep slide and voice drawling along and taking us through the empty feelings of the despair he aptly portrays vocally and on his ax.

“Church Bells (Little Zion)” is next and it takes us deep into church. It’s rousing, dirty and just well done overall. The guitar rings, the organ blazes and the vocals howl. “Watermelon Girl” has some fancy steel guitar and a Caribbean flair as Heavydrunk sings emotively. Slim’s slide reappears as he fronts the band for “Road Food and Cheap Motels.” He sings of life on rolling down the road. It’s another winner.

“You Make Me Want To” is next, a ballad with a slick snare shuffle and restrained guitar driving it. Haunting backing vocals add sweetly to the mix. Then it’s “Better Worser Too,” a dark and  brooding with cool horns; it all just grabs you. Slim reprises Little Bighorn” as a sol acoustic song with him singing and playing resonator. It’s quintessential Watermelon Slim, with his deep and resonant vocals and country drawl giving it his all.

Slim leads the a capella “Australia,” a chant with handclapping that is like a sea chanty. He adds a dirty harp solo to make it more fun. The finale is a huge R&B number with big horns, organ, backing vocalists and makes you want to get up and dance.

Robinson is a Southern restauranteur from Mississippi who dabbles in music with his nine-piece band Heavydrunk. Watermelon Slim is a multiple award-winning bluesman who now resides in Mississippi. Together they have delivered a fine album of new and creative music. I think it it’s going to garner some recognition and I highly recommend it!

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.

Greg Nagy – The Real You

Self-release

www.gregnagy.com

11 songs – 43 minutes

Listening to The Real You is a curious experience if, like this reviewer, you haven’t come across Greg Nagy before. It’s a superb collection of 11 classy blues, soul, R’n’B and rock songs, beautifully recorded, with top drawer musicianship, all under-pining Nagy’s gorgeous blue-eyed soul vocals. Appreciation for and enjoyment of the music is counter-balanced by an insistent question: how the heck isn’t this artist better known?

The Real You is Nagy’s fourth release and is an absolute belter. Featuring a great mix of five originals and some wildly unexpected covers, the album is a delight from start to finish. It opens with the uplifting soul of the title track, written by organist Jim Alfredson, who used to play in Root Doctor with Nagy, before leaping into Willie Brown’s “Mississippi Blues” that features Nagy on acoustic guitar, Ray Goodman on Dobro and Peter Mudcat Ward on harmonica. Nagy’s soaring vocals take center stage on a stunning re-imagination of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” that seizes and illuminates the soul at the heart of the song.  It also contains an object lesson in how to craft a short, memorable yet melodic guitar solo.

Larry McCray’s always on point lead guitar is a highlight of the Robert Cray-esque blues-soul of “Never Mine”, before Bob Seger’s “Come To Poppa” is given a stripped-down,  slowed-down, groove-focused re-awakening and The Beatles’ “Something” becomes a moving duet with Thornetta Davis while Josh Ford lets George Harrison’s original guitar melodies serve as a launch pad to fire off a series of potent solos that are all entirely his own.

Nagy uses a variety of musicians on The Real You with a core band of Nagy himself on guitars and vocals, Ford on guitars (and sometimes percussion and vibraphone), Dale Gris on organ, clav and Fender Rhodes, John Barron on bass and Todd Glasson on drums.  They are joined at various times by Lynne Calloway on backing vocals, Keith Kaminski on saxophones, Walter White on brass, Richard Curran on strings, and Larry McCray and Bobby Murray on lead guitar.

Nagy’s instrumental shuffle “Cornell Ala King” is a loving tribute to both BB King and the great Cornell Dupree whilst another original, “Baby, What Took Your Love From Me” mines from the heart of the apparently inexhaustible seam of great soul-blues songs. “Where Do We” starts out as an acoustic blues before cleverly morphing into a blues-rock song with hints of Led Zep (albeit with less sloppy guitar from Bobby Murrary) and an ear-worm of a falsetto verse closing line.

Nagy accompanies himself on just a finger-picked acoustic guitar on “All I Need (Is You)” before the album closes with Brandi Carlile’s uplifting ode to society’s marginalized, “The Joke” with aching piano.

Produced, recorded and engineered by Nagy and Ford at Sound Shop Studio, Macomb MI, The Real You is an absolute delight from first note to last. Greg Nagy really should be better known. Highly recommended.

Reviewer Rhys “Lightnin'” Williams plays guitar in a blues band based in Cambridge, England. He also has a day gig as a lawyer.

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne – Ooh Yeah!

Stony Plain Records

https://stonyplainrecords.com

12 tracks

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne celebrates his storied career with a great new release featuring all original songs. Eleven are brand new and pone is the new reworking of  one of his prior songs. He delivers soulful, funky stuff while mixing boogie woogie, rock, country, gospel and sounds of the Crescent City into his blues. He’s assembled a great supporting cast on this album and it’s a wonderful musical ride. The songs vary from personal, intimate reflections to social commentary. There is something for everyone on this super album.

Kenny handles piano, keys and lead vocals. Drums are shared by Joey DiMarco, Bucky Burger, Ian McKeown, and Adam Warner. Bass duties are also shared; Nick Succi, James Rasmussen, and Jimmy Bowskill, who also adds some strings, guitar and banjo, are the bassists. James Anthony plays guitar. The Canadian horn section are Kaven Jalbert on tenor sax, Remi Cormie on trumpet and Mathieu Mousseau on baritone sax. Salena adds vocals and backing vocals.

Kenny begins with the title track, a jumping boogie woogie with a great stride and slick call and response.  It gets the blood moving well as he and his cohorts lay out a wicked pace on this nice original track. He moves down home with some cool banjo support on “Whatcha Gonna Do Now?,” a commentary on how we’ve destroyed our planet. “Baby I’m Your Man” follows, the first appearance of the horn section as Wayne lays out a NOLA style tune for us as he swears allegiance to his woman. His piano work is well done and the musical support is excellent.

Up next is a NOLA inspired instrumental entitled “Sailing With The Sunset.” Piano with a fun percussion groove make this a lot of fun. “My Point Of View” follows, a song about working together to achieve solutions to problems. A little funky, a cool groove and more slick percussion along with a vibrant electric guitar solo and accompaniment help to sell this one. “Try It Out” is what Kenny calls country funk. He uses the banjo, a driving beat, his piano, horns and hand claps to make this both vibrant and unique.

“Wishing Well” is a rearranged and updated version of one of his older songs. A funky and soulful groove help this to flow along with some great guitar. Wayne and company rock out on “Honey Honey Honey” where the piano boogie is outstanding and the horns and guitar help deliver the goods. “Blacklist” is a song about a well-remembered list of relationship issues that destroyed a fictitious relationship. The keys are soulful, the vocals are sublime as Wayne sings of the woman who has spurned him.

Kenny’s wife Karen was placed in a facility to take care of her old age needs and he dedicates “I Wish Things We Different” to her. He sings of how he wishes that life had turned out differently from the sucker punch life dealt them. It’s a pretty and somber cut. Wayne delivers some exceptional southern soul on “It’s Pounding Down.” The rain coming down conjures up feelings of loneliness nd being separated from the one he loves. Another pretty and emotional piece. He concludes with “That Crazy Monkey,” a song celebrating his birth in the Chinese Zodiac year of the Monkey and how the old monkey tries to prove he could do what he used to do when he was young. His two monkey go and watch the old monkey make a fool of himself; luckily he survives.

Wayne delivers a dozen great originals here in his inimitable style. He varies and blends genres as he demonstrates the the skills that earned him many an award in his legendary career. It’s a great set of tunes delivered only as this master can. I loved the album and recommend it to all blues lovers!

Blues Blast Magazine Senior writer Steve Jones is president of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career since 1996, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and works with their Blues In The Schools program. He resides in Byron, IL.

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

Just by gazing at Joined at the Hip (Telarc), the collaboration between Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, it’s quickly evident there is no need for vocalization to illustrate the deep bond shared by the two distinguished gentlemen pictured on the cover.

The look on their faces say way more than any string of words ever could.

Ever since the ivory-tickling Perkins joined the Muddy Waters Band in 1969, a group that featured Smith on drums, the fire of friendship has burned bright between Pinetop and “Big Eyes.”

Unfortunately, Perkins recently left this earth, rejoining Muddy on the other side of the Pearly Gates, but his old pal “Big Eyes” offers up a reason while Pinetop, though now gone, will never be forgotten.

“Why did everyone love Pinetop? Because he was good, that’s why,” said Smith. “He loved what he did and he was good at it. It’s simple. That’s why we’ll always remember him.”

Though they were by no means spring chickens when Joined at the Hip was released in 2010 – Perkins was 97 and Smith was 73 – the album still found a place in the collective conciseness of blues lovers everywhere.

And oh yeah, it also won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album, making Pinetop the oldest living recipient of one of the music industry’s most coveted trophies.

Muddy is no doubt smiling in approval.

And as for Smith?

“It’s still sinking in,” he said. “I’m just a little ole speck and when you get hold of a big ole piece of gold, you gotta’ take your time and let it sink in.”

The reunion on record of Pinetop and “Big Eyes” was not done with some kind of a cosmic plan in mind, but rather as another chance for the two elder statesmen to cut loose, doing what they do best.

“It was the producer’s (Michael Freeman) idea for the name,” Smith said. “Pinetop was getting up in age – his mind may have been slippin’, but his fingers sure weren’t – and Patricia Morgan just decided that since Pinetop and I had been playing together on and off for 40 years – mostly on – it would be good for us to do something and call it Joined at the Hip. None of us was thinking about no Grammy or nothing like that. They just wanted us to do something together, like in the old days.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

History that culminated at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California.

“Now that was a surprise, even when they told us we had been nominated,” Smith said. “I just couldn’t believe it. Just to even be nominated was hard to believe. But when we walked away with it … I’ll put it like this – the man upstairs knows best, because everything seems to work out for a reason. It was sure in someone else’s hands.”

Joined at the Hip also took top honors in the Best Traditional Blues Album category at this year’s Blues Music Awards in Memphis.

Pretty cool stuff for a couple of cats that first crossed paths in Helena, Arkansas, back when Smith was just a young lad.

“I remember seeing Pinetop play around Helena,” Smith said. “And him and my auntie and uncle were friends, so that’s how I got to meet Pinetop for the first time. I was about seven years old.”

Smith was born in the town of Helena, and it was also there that he got the first taste of the music that would soon shape his life.

“When I was small, in the early 40s and 50s, the best thing they had there was Sonny Boy Williamson and that program on KFFA (King Biscuit). It was 15 minutes of blues every day and every day we’d try to make it home by 12:00 to hear the King Biscuit Boys,” he said. “And maybe one or two Saturdays a month, we had this place called the Miller Theater and they’d have people there playing the blues. I was kind of small then and some of them (performers) I can remember and some I can’t.”

After moving to Chicago when he was 17, Smith picked up the art of playing the harmonica and was soon keeping pretty busy by blowing harp all over the city.

And as Smith says, going from the small town environment of Helena, Arkansas to the wide-open, 24-hour a day happenings in the Windy City was “like walking on Broadway.”

“Oh, man. Things were different in Chicago, for sure,” he laughed. “Different than they were in Helena. But now West Memphis, that was another story. That was almost like Chicago back in the day. It may have even been better than Chicago. It wasn’t no big place, but they had what I call the heavy artillery there. All the players played West Memphis. And everybody knew everybody there. That’s where all the action was.”

Just as he started to find his way around Chicago as an in-demand harp player, even playing on chestnuts like Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy,” a new storm was brewing on the horizon, a force of nature that would have a direct impact on Smith’s career. A force called rock-n-roll.

“When I started out playing, the blues was doing pretty good. But in the middle to the end of the 50s, like Muddy said, ‘blues had a baby and they called it rock-n-roll,’ and that meant the blues started to take a backseat,’ Smith said. “It was a different generation. The music was the same, they used the same words and things, but they just speeded it up. And that’s what everybody liked.”

That new infatuation with that burgeoning form of music also proved to make it tough for a harmonica player to find steady work.

That’s when Willie “Big Eyes” Smith first decided to grab a pair of sticks and move to the ‘rat-a-tat-tat’ of the drums.

And the results were immediate.

“I went from playing just on weekends, playing my kind of music on the harp, to working throughout the week by switching over to the drums,” he said. “I started working five or six nights a week. I was still playing the blues, but I also played a little rock-n-roll, too. It wasn’t so much of an economic thing, cause weren’t none of us making any money, but the good thing of it was you got to play music and have fun.”

Chicago was certainly stocked full of inspirational drummers at the time and a couple of those – Elmore James’ drummer Fred Bellow, along with another alumnus of Muddy Waters’ band, Francis Clay, turned out to be mentors that Smith turned to while developing his craft on the skins.

“They both really influenced my style. I wanted to play like both of them,” said Smith. “And what can I say? I guess out of that, I just developed me – my style.”

That style has most definitely served Smith well over the years, whether he was holding down the backbeat for over 15 years in what would become Muddy’s last core band, or whether keeping time for The Legendary Blues Band, or on his own solo works.

It also gave a whole new generation of would-be drummers inspiration to pick up the sticks – including a young man right in Smith’s own house – his son, Kenny “Beady Eyes” Smith.

As it turns out, “Beady Eyes” was a quick study. Playing in the true Chicago style that his father helped make famous, Kenny Smith has become a first-call session man and bandleader in his own right.

And as one would expect, father and son share a lot when it comes to laying down a groove.

“When I hear him (Kenny) play, I have to listen real close, because if I don’t pay attention to the little things that go on, I can’t tell him from me a lot of times,” the elder Smith said. “And I have a lot of fun playing with him. It lets me know that I’m moving on up the ladder. But I do have a lot of fun with him. I really appreciate him.”

Kenny Smith was nominated for a Blues Music Award (BMA) in the category of Best Instrumentalist for the second year in a row.

However, “Beady Eyes” has a ways to go before he catches up with his old man when it comes to the BMAs.

“Big Eyes” has won the Blues Music Award for Best Instrumentalist an incredible12 times.

Twelve times and counting, that is.

“I’ve got about 10 or 12 of those (BMAs) and a couple of years ago, I told ‘em that it would be nice if they didn’t put me in (the nominations) so some of the younger people could have a chance to get recognized,” Smith laughed. “But I’m nominated once again this year … so I guess they just didn’t listen.”

Blues Music Awards … Grammy Awards … it’s got to be a bit surrealistic for a country boy from Phillips County, Arkansas to be hailed as one of the best at what he does.

“Well, I don’t consider myself to be the best, but I do know my job,” he said. “And if you know your job and can be the best you can … that’s all you can do. But as far as winning it, it does make me feel good. Because over the years, I’ve worked, but never really tried to win anything (awards). If I can just get up there and play, that makes me feel good, too. But it also makes me feel good that people know that I’m still around.”

Relevant as ever, Smith was also recently a part of another BMA-winning album, Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s Live! In Chicago, a disc that won for Rock Blues Album of the Year at this year’s Blues Music Awards. Smith blows some gritty harp and handles lead vocals duties on a simmering version of “Eye to Eye.” He even engages in a bit of harmonica-guitar back-and-forth with Shepherd in the middle of the tune.

For Smith, getting on stage and jamming with groups like the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band is just another way to make sure the traditions and ways of the past continue to live, breathe and grow.

“I think some of the young bands we got these days are real good. That means the blues are in good hands,” Smith said. “And we’ve (the older generation) got to show them what we know. It wouldn’t be worth having if you can’t pass it on to someone else and that’s what I want to do. Pass the blues along to the young ones, just like it was passed to me when I was in their shoes.”

That’s probably never been as important as it is these days, when making a living out of playing the blues can be one tough order of business.

“Well, I don’t call it hard work, or really work at all,” Smith said. “I call it having fun. I’ve been fortunate enough to make it through the lean times playing the blues. I’ve been able to feed my family and keep a roof over their heads and that’s the most important thing. There have been some lean times, but you just use what you got.”

And Smith plans to keep on using what he’s got for as long as the good man upstairs will allow. There will be no slowing down or putting up the drumsticks and harmonica in the near future for Willie “Big Eyes” Smith.

“Nope, not until they do me like Pinetop,” he said. “I’m going to play right until the end. My intentions are to keep doing what I’ve been doing for quite a few years and then just lay down and go to sleep and don’t wake up.”

Photos © 2025 Bob Kieser

Interviewer Terry Mullins is a journalist and former record store owner whose personal taste in music is the sonic equivalent of Attention Deficit Disorder. Works by the Bee Gees, Captain Beefheart, Black Sabbath, Earth, Wind & Fire and Willie Nelson share equal space with Muddy Waters, The Staple Singers and R.L. Burnside in his compact disc collection. He’s also been known to spend time hanging out on the street corners of Clarksdale, Mississippi, eating copious amounts of barbecued delicacies while listening to the wonderful sounds of the blues.

Mountain View Gospel Blues – Standin’ at the Door

Don Hoffman – 2024

https://soundcloud.com/hoffman50287

9 tracks; 50 minutes

Ever since the quiet reception of Mountain View Gospel Blues’ 2024 release, Standin’ at the Door, the creative force behind the band, Don Hoffman has wondered if he has alienated two distinct audiences. Reflecting on the minimal airplay compared to past blues albums, Hoffman said “I don’t know if blues enthusiasts are passing because of the ‘Gospel’ message in the music, if the Christian music community is passing because it’s blues or what the problem is. The music’s good. That’s all I know.”

Standin’ at the Door offers fiery electric blues, infused with the gospel and passion. Hoffman wrote the majority of the songs in the early 1990’s, with a blues rock trio in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. At the time Hoffman recorded the music on primitive equipment, hardly sufficient for demo purposes.

In 2020, to fulfill his longtime goal of creating high-quality recordings of the music, Hoffman recruited two longtime friends, Pat Allen on drums, and Doug Brown on Bass guitar, as well an 18-year-old blues harp prodigy he found on Craigslist, Jackson Baker. Due to Covid and an unexpected hurricane that flooded the recording studio, Sonlight Productions, it took the group 4 years to produce the album.

Aside from the gospel lyrics and traditional hymns, the record sounds like a traditional blues album, in the style of the electric Chicago Blues. A dialed-in rhythm section pounds away, supporting mean, sliding harmonica, and howling guitar solos.

On the opening track, “Somebody Prayed for Me”, steady tasteful guitar starts out as Hoffman sings, with soulful, smoky vocals, “Well I was walking down a rocky road. You were there. You saw me falling and you prayed for me.” Allen provides a solid, driving rhythm, complimenting the skillful guitar solos on the slow rocker.

“Wise Man” kicks off with strong, heavy drums, quickly followed by sliding harmonica and an irresistible funky beat. In the off-kilter rhythm, several layers of instruments work in harmony. While powerful, the Little Walter-inspired harmonica solo may go on a bit too long.

The album’s titular track, “Standin’ at the Door”, comes across as a bluesier “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones. The track opens with a verse from Revelation 3:20, about welcoming Jesus into your heart, but the music has a boogie-woogie flavor. Hoffman meanders through scales with smooth guitar playing, but the track has a start-stop, syncopated style. Stealing the show, Baker on the blues harp wildly howls, like a bad case of the blues and a man in need of shelter. Hoffman sings “It’s getting kind of bad… let me in.”

Stirring, deep blues guitar notes ring out on the first notes of “People Try”, a song about the human condition and the fall from Eden. Blistering blasts of harmonica compliment the slow tides of guitar, with lyrics highlighting the strive for righteousness and the fall into darkness. Hoffman sings “What good’s it gonna do man? He’s got the whole world, but he’s losing his soul.” Ultimately, Hoffman writes about the value of the soul and the misplaced focus on riches.

“Goin’ Down to Calvary” features slow, simmering guitar, and lingering, sweet harmonica; somehow, a certain melancholy passion is conveyed. In one of the best tracks on the LP, Hoffman sings in a deep, almost growling voice “I’ve been kicked out of the garden Cut off from that tree of life.” The lyrics tell a tale of redemption and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Although a tad preachy, the lyrics on “Red Wine”, a tune about the downward spiral of alcoholism, are simple and effective. Soulful guitar solos are clean, precise, and yet highly emotional. A chilling guitar progression in the middle precedes Hoffman crying out “Keep reaching for your bottle. Lord knows I’d have quit you if I could.” Here, and throughout the album, the band carries a positive, hopeful Christian message; at the end, Hoffman sings “We put the cork back in the bottle. His saving grace was the reason why.”

The up-tempo blues rock tune, “Eternal Flame”, brashly explodes in too many directions, with self-indulgent guitar solos.

Mountain View Gospel Blues’s cover of “Jesus Gonna Make it Alright” is an ethereal, dreamy (almost pop rock) take, with no gumption or bite. Although a weak song, it is somewhat redeemed at the end, as Hoffman belts out “Jesus gonna make it alright”, clearly pouring his soul into it with the voice of a true believer.

On “Jesus Loves Me”, lyrics like “Jesus loves me, for the bible tells me so” come across as slightly corny and preachy, but Hoffman shows off impressive guitar solos. The track lacks some of the authentic blues infused throughout the rest of the album.

Standin’ at the Door, on the whole, offers solid musicianship, good, Chicago-inspired blues, and a Gospel message. The album has something to offer for fans of the blues, regardless of where they may be on their spiritual journey, or if they believe in spiritual matters at all.

Writer Jack Austin, also known by his radio DJ name, Electric Chicken (y Pollo Electrico en Espanol), is a vinyl collector, music journalist, and musician originally from Pittsburgh.