Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials

Slideways

Alligator Records

Duckwalking the length of a beer-soaked, bottle-littered bar top, ripping slide guitar licks. That memory reveals some of the essence of Lil’ Ed Williams, nephew of Chicago blues great J.B. Hutto. Back as the mid-1980s slid into the 90s, a Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials show was a blazing display of Chicago-styled blues infused with personality. Introduced on a 1987 Alligator Records anthology LP, the band was touted as one of The New Bluebloods that would propel the music forward. Williams likely doesn’t duckwalk bars at 70 now, but in listening to Slideways, he still slings the blues from the tips of his fingers and the bottom of his gut with youthful passion.

Slideways is the tenth Little Ed & The Blues Imperials album and every one of them bears the Alligator logo and were co-produced by label owner Bruce Iglauer. All but the first feature the same band as here on Slideways—Williams, his half-brother James “Pookie” Young on bass, guitarist Mike Garrett, and drummer Kelly Littlejohn. Ben Levin adds either piano or organ to eight of the album’s 13 songs to great effect. And songs they are. Succinct, catchy, and with stories either deeply reflective or chock-full of rambunctious blues music fun. All but one were written or co-written by Williams, and only a band wrapped tightly together for almost four decades could play them with the ease, authority, and between-the-eyes effect that these men do.

As Garrett’s thick, chewy notes and Williams’s feline slide runs join forces at the outset of “Bad All by Myself,” Williams begins singing “my baby’s gone” woes in a likable Southside drawl. The thrill of a top-flight blues album to come instantly hits. With Levin hammering the piano in “The Flirt in the Car Wash Skirt,” the band takes rollicking flight on a novel number that pushes that thrill into hearty overdrive. But this band knows how to use the blues for serious soul-searching all the same. A meandering, tough “Homeless Blues,” the album’s only cover by Willie “Long Time” Smith, sets a scene about as blue as it gets. Williams’s slide notes are like the icy stings of a concrete bed.

Changing it up to a snappy beat for “Make a Pocket for Your Grief,” Williams delivers a learned message to be taken to heart. “More Time” brings on swinging elegance aided beautifully by Levin’s piano playing. The music in the latter expertly juxtaposes with a series of gripes about being annoyingly, endlessly busy. Williams and his co-authors can write ‘em as well as he and the band plays ‘em.

Something for everyone bursts forth in these irresistible Slideways blues, and as the title suggests, that includes a profusion of adrenaline-fueled slide guitar expertise. Iglauer ranks the album as his favorite to date by Little Ed & The Blues Imperials. That rare boast bears out in the exemplification of Alligator’s slogan: Genuine Houserockin’ Music! Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials has lived up to the expectations Alligator set all those tears ago, and then some.

Tom Clarke for MAS

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