Son Seals - Deluxe Edition [CD]

For pure passion, grit and "deep blues" feeling, no Chicago bluesman equals the Bad Axe, Son Seals. From his first Alligator album, recorded almost 30 years ago, to the searing live performances that he still delivers as he nears the age of 60, Son has never let up on the intensity of his blues.

Son was literally born into the blues. He was raised in the back room of his father's juke joint, The Dipsy Doodle Club, in Osceola, Arkansas, and tutored by his father on both drums and guitar. He was leading his own band as a teenager before hitting the road as a sideman with Earl Hooker and Albert King, two of the greatest blues guitarists of their generation.

Son moved to Chicago's South Side in 1971 and began making a name for himself. He jammed with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Magic Slim and with Alligator's first artist, Hound Dog Taylor. When Hound Dog started touring after the release of his debut album, he asked Son to fill in at his regular weekend gig at the tiny Expressway Lounge on 55th Street. That's where I first saw Son, playing on a borrowed guitar, singing through his amp, fronting a ragged trio. Even though he was performing standard blues tunes, t here was a fire in his music in the sheets of distorted guitar notes, in his ultra-hard attack, in the waves of speed picking followed by "take your time" bending, and above all in the total commitment of his singing that marked a blues master in the rough.

The Son Seals Blues Band, released in 1973, was the third Alligator album ever. Recorded in two nights, totally live, it was full of rough edges (heightened by the crude sound of his ultra-cheap Montgomery Ward's Norma guitar). The sound was raw, but his passion poured onto the recording.

Son began honing his music and his commanding, man-of-few words stage presence on the road. By the time he cut Midnight Son in 1976 he had totally matured as a bluesman, counterpointing his searing guitar (this time a Sears Roebuck Silvertone) and gruff vocals with inventive, strutting horns. Midnight Son was hailed by Rolling Stone and The New York Times as one of the great blues records of the decade, and marked the emergence of Son as a national and international blues icon. Since then, he's gone from strength to strength, touring worldwide, cutting eight Alligator albums (two of them live) filled with his own originals and his inventive reworkings of other tunes. Though he's faced a series of health problems in recent years, the Son Seals passion and fire and the uncompromising, in-your-face quality of his blues remains as strong as it was 30 years ago. He doesn't just play and sing the blues. He is the blues.

 --Bruce Iglauer