John Primer & Friends – Tribute To Theresa’s Lounge
Blues House – 2026
13 tracks; 57 minutes
John Primer has been extremely busy in recent years, playing regularly in Chicago, touring across Europe and producing a series of excellent albums in both duo and band settings. His latest release, again on his own Blues House label, pays tribute to the club where he and many of his contemporaries got their first break and learned their craft – Theresa’s Lounge in Chicago. John certainly paid his dues there, playing with the likes of Junior Wells, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Magic Slim before forming his own band in the 1990’s. Here he reunites with a host of the great Chicago bluesmen who are still here to perform and who all started out at Theresa’s – Billy Branch on harp and vocals, Mary Lane and Willie Buck on vocals, Carlos Johnson and John Watkins on guitar and vocals, Harmonica Hinds on harp, Bob Stroger and Jeff Brinkman on bass and Twist Turner and Tony Mangiullo on drums; John himself plays guitar throughout and handles the vocals on eight tracks. The material is a blend of Chicago blues classics and four new songs written by John especially for this album.
Using a tune close to the better known “Messin’ With The Kid’, “Up In Heah” was the standard set opener for Junior Wells when he played Theresa’s and it makes an exciting start to the album, wailing harp and slide featured. Two originals follow: “7 Nights For 7 Years” is about how hard John worked at the club in his early days, the lyrics referencing Wells and James Cotton who will “make you jump and shout”; “The Blues Is King” emphasizes how important it to keep the blues alive, slide and harp in unison on this superbly sung track. Billy Branch takes over the mike for “Sugar Sweet”, the first of three songs here written by Mel London, Billy’s harp work outstanding on this fast-paced number, once performed by Muddy Waters at Theresa’s. If you want to hear someone who sings just like Muddy, try Willie Buck who delivers Muddy’s classic “Champagne And Reefer” so well that you could swear it was Muddy himself!
“We All Need Help” is John’s tribute to club owner Theresa Needham who was always willing to assist those in need: “Just keep on trying and you will succeed; have faith and courage, that’s all you need”. We then return to Muddy with Carlos Johnson handling the vocals on “She’s Nineteen Years Old” and exchanging guitar salvos with John. Mel London’s best known song has to be “Little By Little”, famously recorded by Junior Wells, and here well executed by John. Mary Lane was the only regular female singer at Theresa’s and is still going strong at age 90, so John wanted to include her own “Mary’s Song” which she delivers strongly with John and Carlos on twin guitars behind her.
John delivers the final Mel London tune, “Cut You A-Loose”, immediately followed by a song that epitomises his latter-day career, “Blues Survivalist”, a slower tune with quite a stripped-back arrangement. “Here I Am Knockin’ At Your Door Again” was a song that James Cotton used to sing at Theresa’s, so John got its author, John Watkins, to sing it here. Another regular at Theresa’s, the late Sammy Lawhorn, always closed his sets at the club with Little Walter’s “Mean Old World”, so it is appropriate that John does the same here, his guitar and Billy Branch’s harp combining brilliantly to close this fine tribute album.
Anyone who loves Chicago blues will also love this album which comes highly recommended.
