Artist:     Alex Dixon

Album:     The Real McCoy

Label:     Dixon Landing Music

Release Date:     3.24.20

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BUY PHYSICAL

The family business is safe in Alex Dixon’s hands. Grandson of the legendary Willie Dixon, who raised him along with wife Marie in Chicago. Young Alex was home schooled in the blues by a teacher who penned some of the genre’s most iconic songs. He met Muddy Waters and learned to pound the ivories on “44 Blues” from Little Brother Montgomery himself. The esteemed Lafayette Leake was his piano teacher, and Johnny Winter and Johnny Shines were regulars at the house. Harvard University couldn’t have provided a better education.

On The Real McCoy, Alex Dixon puts it to good use, churning out electric, Chicago-style blues that’s authentic and true. Somewhere, Willie is beaming with pride at these fully realized recordings. With 1989’s Hidden Charms, Alex Dixon won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. That record included the song “Study War No More,” just one of the songs he wrote with his grandfather, whose presence is felt on The Real McCoy. Alex recorded four of Willie’s songs for the album, including the dynamic and manly “When I Make Love” and slowly cooked renditions of a fattened “Spider in My Stew,” a 1973 hit for Buster Benton, and a pained “Groaning the Blues,” recorded by Otis Rush in 1957 for Cobra Records, that turns as if being roasted over a spit. Just as savory, the downhearted lament “My Greatest Desire” is unfolded methodically like a crumpled love letter fished out of the trash, whereas the rough and rowdy opener “Nothing New Under the Sun” makes for a raw, boisterous stomp in the tradition of Willie’s own “Hoochie Coochie Man” and features the surprisingly mature howl of Dixon’s 13-year-old daughter Leila in the background.

The playing on The Real McCoy is muscular, while exhibiting a refined touch, as Dixon’s bass provides a strong backbone and his piano work dances with vigor and grace. Lead singer Lewis “Big Lew” Parnell is a marvel, his big, barrel-chested vocals bursting forth with charisma and charm, as the harmonicas of Steve Bell and Sugar Blue—that’sBlue on the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You”—blow, wail and honk with undeniable personality and swagger. Guitarists Melvin Taylor, Gino Matteo, Joey Delgado and Rico McFarland serve up an abundance of satisfying licks with bravado, class and craftsmanship, going off in all directions and bending glistening strings to their indomitable will as Alvino Bennett’s drumming expertise pulls everything together nicely. The Real McCoy is aptly named.

—Peter Lindblad