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Chicago blues.
Those two words
conjure up the
most powerful
and evocative
images in the
entire history
of American
music. Think
smoke-filled
taverns on the
South or West
Side nearly
ablaze with
tremendous
displays of
electrified
Delta beats from
dignitaries
named Muddy
Waters, Howlin’
Wolf, Jimmy
Rogers, Little
Walter, Elmore
James, Buddy
Guy, Junior
Wells and so
many more.
Imagine sidewalk
curbs and street
corners on busy
Maxwell Street
where storied
performers like
Hound Dog Taylor
and Robert
Nighthawk wailed
the blues for
spare change.
Chicago blues is
now also
synonymous with
guitarist
Nick Moss.
Though the
golden era of
Chicago blues is
long past, with
many of its key
players deceased
or retired, this
young Chicagoan
stands tallest
in the current
generation of
blues performers
that honor the
letter and
spirit of the
great urban
African-American
music. No less
than Jimmy
Rogers saw
Nick as a
protégé, a
torchbearer, and
a colleague.
Buddy Guy
also sanctions
his talent:
“Nick Moss is
one of the local
favorites at my
club, Legends. I
always enjoy the
way he plays and
works hard to
please our
audience.” Noted
Chicago-based
music journalist
Bill Dahl,
never one for
gratuitous
praise, has
raved over
Nick’s guitar
playing, saying
he possesses
“mastery of the
classic Chicago
sound,” while
acclaimed blues
producer Dick
Shurman
numbers himself
among Nick’s
ever-growing
legion of
admirers,
calling his
Windy City
neighbor “an
increasingly
centered artist
who can rightly
be called a
master.”
A musician of consummate skill, Nick fully understands the
debt he owes his
predecessors and
how important it
is to carry on
tradition in an
honorable
fashion. “I’m
not trying to
re-invent the
wheel,” he says
with
characteristic
modesty, “or
trying to bring
things into the
new millennia.
I’m just
playing what was
handed down to
me and do it
justice. I
have a lot of
respect for the
guys who taught
it to me—I
played with
Jimmy Dawkins, I
played with
Willie Smith, I
played with
Jimmy Rogers—and
in my heart I
love [this
music] and I
don’t feel it
has to be
changed much.”
Passionate blues fans around the country gravitate to
Nick’s playing
in live
performance and
on recordings
because of that
stylistic link
to the Chicago
blues past. But
Nick’s music
also holds
enormous appeal
for casual fans
of blues and
even novices.
“I’m trying to
find that fine
line of not
compromising the
integrity of
that classic
music,” he
says, “and
yet still make
it a little
fresher-sounding
and
contemporary-sounding
where I can get
across to the
element of the
crowd that isn’t
hard-core.”
To his credit, Nick’s no imitator. He has his own distinct
voice on the
guitar, what all
musicians in all
genres strive
for yet very few
achieve. “I’ve
listened to just
about every
blues guitar
player from the
’40s, ’50s, ’60s
and ’70s,
especially the
Chicago guys,
and tried to
take in all of
it,” he offers,
“but I don’t
consider myself
a note-to-note
copier. I
absorbed their
style and feel
and timing. I
try to listen
and capture the
essence of what
they were
doing.”
For Nick Moss, the rise to the top tier of blues musicians
out of Chicago
had its
beginnings right
in his boyhood
home. “If it
wasn’t for my
brother Joe I
wouldn’t be
playing. I used
to watch him
play guitar
growing up, and
still today he’s
one of my
favorite
guitarists, a
musician’s
musician,
playing blues,
jazz, funk,
soul, and rock.
He pointed me in
the right
direction.” Too
young for legal
admission into
clubs, aspiring
teenaged blues
man Nick
literally
sneaked into
local blues dens
and soaked up
the classic
ensemble sound
played by the
venerable elders.
“My first
influence was
Jimmy Dawkins
because he gave
me my first real
gig playing bass
for him. I just
happened to be
at a blues jam
when I found out
he needed a bass
player. I really
didn’t know who
the guy was. I
found out how
heavy he was
after I started
playing with him
and doing
research.” How
heavy? Dawkins
was one of the
true stars of
electric blues
in the ’70s, an
acclaimed star
in Europe but
always
criminally
undervalued in
the States.
Nick’s schooling began in earnest when he hooked up with
the Muddy
Waters-styled
Legendary Blues
Band that
featured Muddy
Waters Blues
Band alumnus
Willie “Big
Eyes” Smith
on drums. “That
was one of my
favorite bands,”
he recalls. “I
still love
Willie. He is
like my second
father. The next
deep-blues
learning period
for Nick, who’d
switched over
from bass to
guitar, was in
the employ of
Jimmy Rogers
for three years
in the mid-’90s.
From this major
figure in the
story of blues
he learned all
about the
special ensemble
sound of
authentic
Chicago blues,
coming to
understand the
importance of
listening
closely to and
reacting to his
fellow players
on the
bandstand.
“Listen to early
Muddy Waters
stuff with Jimmy
and Otis Spann
and Little
Walter,” says
Nick of the
original model.
“It almost
sounds as if
they’re playing
on top of each
other, but
they’re staying
out of each
other’s way. It
almost sounds
like they’re all
soloing at the
same time.” When
he wasn’t
performing as
second guitarist
for Rogers or
listening to his
mentor regale
him with story
after story,
Nick kept busy
listening hard
to the recorded
work of other
Chicago blues
players, among
them Louis
Myers, Robert
Jr. Lockwood,
Earl Hooker and
Johnny
Littlejohn.
With his blues graduate studies completed by the late-’90s,
Moss started
fronting his own
band, The
Flip Tops.
Their first
album,
First Offense,
was followed by
second effort
Got a New
Plan in
2001 and then
two years later
a third album,
Count Your
Blessings—the
latter two
received W.
C. Handy award
nominations—all
bear the imprint
of Nick and Kate
Moss’ Blue
Bella Records
label. (Not
incidentally,
Count Your
Blessings
included ace
contributions by
several of his
famous friends,
among them
Sam Myers, Anson
Funderburgh,
Willie Smith,
Curtis Salgado
and Lynwood
Slim.) June
2005 saw the
release of
fourth album
Sadie Mae,
named after his
beautiful baby
daughter. Among
the 16 tracks on
this release are
his wise and
heartfelt
interpretations
of Jimmy Rogers’
“Crazy Woman
Blues,” Earl
Hooker’s “You
Got To Lose” and
Lefty Dizz’s “If
I Could Get My
Hands On You.”
Nick says of his
growing
discography, “I
think slowly but
surely with
each CD I’ve
grown a little
bit more
confident in the
ability to add
the contemporary
element. If
people go back
and listen to
all four of the
CDs, they’d see
a growth with
each disc of
more
contemporary
elements. My
first album is
straight-up
’50s-style
blues, and the
next two are a
really good mix
[of classic and
contemporary
blues styles of
the ’60s and
’70s]. Sadie Mae
became a clearer
picture of what
we did live at
the time.” The
release was
nominated for
two 2006 Blues
Music Awards
(“Album of the
Year” and
“Traditional
Blues Album of
the Year”.)
Perhaps the clearest picture of what the band does live is
illustrated on
the fifth
release,
Live At Chan’s,
recorded at
Chan’s Eggroll &
Jazz in
Woonsocket, RI
in July of 2005
and released in
July of 2006.
Nick had been
approached by
some blues fans
from the east
coast earlier
that year, who
had wondered
when he was
going to release
a live record.
Moss replied
that he had
always wanted
to, but there
just weren’t any
plans to put one
out just yet.
The two fans
convinced Nick
to let them make
the necessary
arrangements,
and, with the
help of their
engineer friend
(who has a
recording
company
outfitted with a
mobile recording
truck), Live At
Chan’s was
conceived. The
set features
current Flip
Tops Gerry
Hundt and
Piano Willie
Oshawny, as
well as special
guest Monster
Mike Welch
(Moss wanted to
reciprocate
after east coast
native Monster
Mike had asked
him to record on
2005’s Cryin’
Hey on the
Dixie Frog
label.) Nick
commented on the
set in the CD’s
liner notes. “I
wanted to make
sure that the CD
reflected the
spontaneity of
our live
performances.
I’ve been
blessed with an
extremely
talented band;
each one of us
is a
multi-instrumentalist
and has no
problem
switching it up
during our
shows! We have
had nothing but
compliments from
our audiences
after they see
how the guys and
I take turns on
different
instruments as
we did on this
particular
night. I never
have a set list
and rarely know
what song I’m
going to do
next. Instead, I
rely on my love
for this music
and the
knowledge that
my band and I
have of the
genre to carry
us through the
night!”
Live At Chan’s went on to receive two 2007 Blues Music Award
nominations
(“Album of
the Year”
and
“Traditional
Blues Album of
the Year),
in addition to
the nods for
“Band of the
Year” and
“Instrumentalist:
Guitar”
[Nick Moss]).
Fresh from the nominations and an electrifying live
performance at
the 2007 Blues
Music Awards
ceremony, Nick
Moss & the Flip
Tops are
following up the
Live
release with
an amazing
two-CD set of
Chicago blues
showcasing not
only the band’s
incredible
talents as
performers and
songwriters, but
also their
tremendous
versatility. In
addition to
Nick Moss on
guitar and
vocals,
Play It Til
Tomorrow
(released Oct 9
, 2007) features
Willie
Oshawny on
keyboards (who
also switches
over to bass on
four tracks and
second guitar on
another) and
Gerry Hundt
on harp and
vocals (who also
plays bass,
rhythm guitar
and mandolin on
the album).
Special guest
Eddie Taylor, Jr
joins the
masterful
lineup on
several
selections, as
does
Barrelhouse
Chuck (for
one track on
Program Two).
The first disc of the double CD set features the band at
their most
rollicking
Chicago blues
sound, with some
killer originals
wrapped around
three cover
songs: Floyd
Jones’ “Rising
Wind,” Luther
“Snake”
Johnson’s “Woman
Don’t Lie” and
Lefty Dizz’s
“Bad Avenue.”
The revelation
for many people
in this package
will be the
second disc,
which mostly
unveils an
“unplugged” side
of the band that
creates a
completely
different level
of blues
previously
unheard from
this band.
Nick Moss and his Flip Tops sizzle in live performance
hundreds of
times a year,
bringing their
superior blues
to clubs from
Cape Cod all the
way west to
southern
California with
countless stops
in between.
Festival
appearances
abound each
summer and fall,
and stops
overseas have
become more
frequent with
each passing
year. Back home,
Nick considers
Buddy Guy’s
Legends as
his favorite
haunt, due in
part to the
great support
Guy has shown
him over the
years.
Nick Moss knows he has something special happening. “I feel
like I’m one of
the only bands
from Chicago
that’s actually
still playing
Chicago blues
the way people
think of Chicago
blues. I’ve
gotten [praise]
from a lot of
the old-timers
that have seen
us play, even
guys that are
not from Chicago
like Kim
Wilson, Rod
Piazza, and
Charlie Baty
and Rick
Estrin of
Little Charlie &
the Nightcats.
[They say] it’s
great to see
there’s actually
a band from
Chicago that
actually plays
Chicago blues.”
No question
about it.
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