Artist:     Kim Wilson

Album:     Take Me Back

Label:     MC Records

Release Date:     10.09.2020

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All the world’s woes evaporate into gritty, gleeful, and gripping melody the instant Kim Wilson starts performing these blues. Wilson formed The Fabulous Thunderbirds with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan (the late Stevie Ray’s elder brother) 47 years ago. He quickly became a blues singer and harmonica player to be reckoned with. The T-Birds churned out traditional and tough enough rocking blues, sometimes with an R&B slant, until Vaughan left, at which point Wilson and a revolving crew began expanding their reach into other roots and rock realms.

Ever since Wilson began making solo albums on the side in 1993, he’s maintained an unwavering passion for the gilded age of the blues. His seventh release, Take Me Back, takes us all back to the 1950s, when Chicago blues flourished in signature styles by now-legendary performers. Wilson and a bevy of top-flight players cut Take Me Back in several sessions at guitarist Big John Atkinson’s Bigtone Records studio, live to tape, and in glorious mono. Seven of its 16 songs are Wilson originals. Four of those—“Wingin’ It,” “Strollin’,” Rumblin’,” and Out of the Fryin’ Pan”—are instrumentals that feature three different configurations of players going to town, with a sharp focus on the sounds of Wilson’s harp. All move to vastly different melodies, and within each, one can hear Wilson reference with ingenuity James Cotton, Little Walter Jacobs, Big Walter Horton, Lazy Lester, and Slim Harpo, his primary inspirations on the instrument. In fact, after all these years of citing those icons, or mixing them together in a phrase, Wilson’s bold, blazing harp tones have become very much his own.

As a vocalist, he’s long been one of the most accomplished. His smoky, buttery tone, and his control and abandon are striking. When the band eases into Jimmy Nolen’s “You’ve Been Goofing,” Wilson sets off grappling with loving a loose woman in a performance that moves from pleading to defiant without notice. In Larry Williams’ classic, old-time rock ‘n’ rollin’ “Slow Down,” Wilson sings as if on the old TV show American Bandstand, hitting the high notes and rippling his lips like a teenager. Atkinson plays the lion’s share of the riveting guitar on the album, his nimble-fingered acoustic work on Howlin’ Wolf’s moanin’ “No Place to Go” making a particular impression. Chicago’s Billy Flynn adds his inimitable guitar to three of Wilson’s blues, and he’s especially fluent on “Play Me,” a romp that also features sparkling piano by Barrelhouse Chuck. Four of Jimmy Rogers’ seminal blues made the cut, and on his “The Last Time,” the west coast’s notable Kid Andersen joins in on guitar to help sweeten the oil on the piston-like melody. Later on, they breeze through Rogers’ “Goin’ Away Baby,” calling to mind Britain’s the Yardbirds in the early 1960s.

All told, Wilson and his friends recreate the sounds of a classic era with aplomb here, but do so with the immense talent that comes with a generation’s worth of knowledge. Wilson recorded Smokin’ Joint and Lookin’ for Trouble, in 2001 and 2003 respectively, for M.C. Records as well. Both albums were nominated for a Grammy in the Traditional Blues category. Take Me Back should certainly follow suit, and win.

—Tom Clarke