Sauce Boss – The Sauce
Swampside Records
12 Tracks – 41 Minutes
Florida based Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton got his start with what he calls Liquid Summer Hot Sauce. In the mid – 1980’s, he began experimenting with datil peppers in his Tallahassee greenhouse, which led to his creation of the aforementioned hot sauce. He says that “unlike the fiery habanero, the datil pepper has this little thing where it kind of creeps up on you.”
At that time of his life, he had been performing regularly around northern Florida. So, he thought he could mix up a couple of gallons of the sauce, bottle it and sell it as a sideline at his shows. After that success, He expanded the effort by cooking pots of Liquid Summer directly on the stage while he was playing. The sauce created a powerful aroma, which he said, “understanding that the stomach is the gateway to the heart”, it added interest to his performance. Initially he gave samples of the sauce on chips.
Then in 1989, he upped the ante by cooking five gallons of gumbo, live on stage, while performing. Like before, he gave away the gumbo after his performance. That is when Bill Wharton became the Sauce Boss. His gumbo craft became synonymous with his music. His contract rider now requires that the venue provide the necessary ingredients for the gumbo, but he supplies the roux and hot sauce. Thirty-five years later and an estimated 200,000 bowls of food later, Bill is still cooking all over the southeast with both his gumbo and his music.
The album is essentially a one-man band performance with Bill and his guitar, but three tracks have guests. There are also four cover songs mixed in with eight originals from Bill. The album opens with “Little Rhythm and Blues” which he says, “will cure anything” and his slide guitar zings. The first cover is Lennon & McCartney’s “The Word” from The Beatles Rubber Soul “and the word is love”. He pulls out his slide guitar again for “Delta 9 Blues”, and for those not in the know, Delta 9 is a reference to a cannabis derivative, as he notes “that every so often I just need a little something for my mind”. “Just give me my reefer and I’ll play you some Delta 9”.
A slow building electric guitar and ocean sounds creates a soft instrumental, “Space Ocean” which shifts into a quiet Hawaiian-style “Down by the Sea” played on his 1933 National Steel Guitar as he notes “This is where I will be”. The second cover is Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down”. Neal Goree guests on guitar and Brett Crook adds drums.
“Don’t Know How to Tell You” is a soft ballad where he declares “whenever I am near you, my heart takes off like a flock of birds”. Probably not a big surprise, but his third cover song is Jimmy Buffett’s “I Will Play for Gumbo” with Damon Fowler guesting on guitar & lap steel. “Lonely Crowd” is an acoustic ballad as he cries “you broke my heart as you walked out the door”.
Damon Fowler and Brett Crook joins with Bill again on Van Morrison’s “Gloria”, but while the words are the same, the music features the lap steel giving the song a completely different feel. “Little Rhythm and Blues Reprise” is a shortened instrumental version of the opening song kicked up a notch with the addition of Neal and Brett. He concludes that a “Left-Handed Smile” is “the best I can do…but I am always smiling at you.”
Bill’s recipe for music is a pleasant and smooth easy-going sound with some excellent guitar mixed in. And if you check his web site, you can buy some of his hot sauce and some cookbooks as well. The Sauce Boss has you covered.
