Reckless and Blue — “Seven Deadly Gins” — Self-Release

Blues music has long thirsted after the pleasures and pains of love at the heart of its emotional essence.

Sometimes, though, love and the blues create a thirst for more – like the heady musical cocktail of Seven Deadly Gins, the sparkling new album served up by the Colorado band Reckless and Blue. The group’s searing blues style has made them winners of the Colorado Blues Society’s 2026 Blues Challenge, headed for January’s International Blues Challenge.

The seasoned veterans of Reckless and Blue were pulled together by George Williams in 2017, when he returned to the Denver area after three decades of travel, and sharpening his talents as a classical guitar student, band member, singer and songwriter. Seven Deadly Gins is a follow to the band’s debut album, Can’t Give Me the Blues, in 2021.

The Reckless quintet regulars include Williams on guitar and vocals, Allen Anderson on keyboards, Tom Dillard on bass, Steve Gaskin on drums, and sultry vocalist Shaunda Fry, notable as a latecomer to the group two years ago, and who didn’t begin her singing career until she turned 50. The ten songs here were written or co-written by Williams, who shares the vocals with Fry, often trading verses in the same song, adding a passionate he-said, she-said lovers’ interaction.

The opener, Come Back, cuts loose with a percussive intro and Williams on cigar box guitar, with co-writer Fry pleading for her lover’s return: “You know I miss you, baby, but now you’re gone / I know you love me, please just come back home.” Fry fuels her next plea for lost love with the libation of the title track, Seven Deadly Gins: “I’ve been drinking gin like never before / Since my baby walked out the door,” with rolling organ riffs from Anderson.

The torchy Triflin’ Blues features Williams and Fry trading soulful verses of mutual torment, mirroring each other’s pain: “Now baby stop – don’t you walk out that door / If you leave this time – I won’t be here when you get back home.” Williams’ vocals romp over the honky-tonk rhythms of Don’t Expect Me, as he warns his lover that he’s gone: “Seems like you got what you had comin’ / You ain’t getting no more of my lovin’.” Fry and Williams pair up again in the gently rocking Burnin’ Daylight, each driving hard to get together again: “I’m comin’ home baby, wait and see / I’m comin’ home, just you and me.”

Can’t Give Me The Blues is another slow-burning scorcher, with Williams and Fry exploring their mutual pain: “You can’t give me the blues / I’ve had the blues for a long long time.” Anderson cranks up the boogie-woogie piano on Shimmy Shakin’ Blues, a rollicking dance track that gives both singers a chance to kick up their vocal legs: “Woke up this morning with a beat in my shoes / Gonna shimmy shake away these shimmy shaking blues.”

The drinking lamp is lit again on the mournful duet If The Blues Was Whiskey (an original, not the 1935 Bumble Bee Slim version): “If the blues was whiskey, I’d stay drunk all the time.” A rocking organ intro from Anderson opens Williams’ solo turn and then follows him while he looks for love on Hey Pretty Baby: “Hey pretty baby, won’t you look my way / Talk to me woman, you will want to hear what I say.” The closer is the haunting, slow-rocking Stormy Night In Denver, with an aching, lovelorn vocal from Fry, with backup vocals from Annie Phillips and Ernie Martinez, plus a splash of horns from Jeff Miguel on sax and Derek Banach on trumpet: “In this rainy night, I’m lost in pain / Longing for my man, so so far away.”

Reckless and Blue’s spirited Seven Deadly Gins arrives as a welcome tonic for love and the blues – no matter how you pour it.

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Here’s a live version of the song “Come Back” from the album:

Tracks:
01. Come Back
02. Seven Deadly Gins
03. Triflin’ Blues
04. Don’t Expect Me
05. Burnin’ Daylight
06. Can’t Give Me The Blues
07. Shimmy Shakin’ Blues
08. If The Blues Was Whiskey
09. Hey Pretty Baby
10. Stormy Night In Denver

Kim Wilson — “Slow Burn” — M.C. Records

For a half-century and change, Kim Wilson’s harp and vocals have led The Fabulous Thunderbirds, the rugged blues band he co-founded in Austin, Texas, in 1974 with Jimmie Vaughan, that supercharged blues music with Wilson’s soaring harp and Vaughan’s superb guitar prowess.

He’s the only original member of the T-Birds still with the band, with Wilson now sometimes stepping out on his own.

“Slow Burn” is his latest solo effort. The songs are taken from two earlier sessions in 2014 and 2020 that featured three outstanding musicians who have since died: drummer Richard Innes, piano player Barrelhouse Chuck, and bassist Larry Taylor.

Eight of the twelve tracks here are classic blues from legendary bluesmen, re-imagined and channeled through Wilson’s prodigious harp and vocals that are more than tuff-enuff for the task. The four originals, especially two instrumentals, show off Wilson’s own powerful classic stylings.

Everything begins with a romp through Little Milton’s “I’m Trying,” with a layer of horns endorsing Wilson’s ever-so-smooth vocal. Wilson’s “Leaving You on My Mind” adds gut-bucket attitude to a down-home trio of harp, guitar and drums.

Wilson gives B.B. King’s “Sweet Little Angel” a convincing vocal workout, with Bob Welsh adding just-right guitar, and Barrelhouse Chuck on piano. “Boogie in E” is Wilson’s first instrumental, a flashy bit of harmonica virtuosity. “Howlin’ For My Darlin’” is appropriately down and dirty Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett), followed the harp wizardry and vocal richness of “Keep Our Business To Yourself” Alex Miller (who performed as Sonny Boy Williamson II).

Wilson reaches deep into the blues for the first of two songs from Robert Nighthawk, who doesn’t often get the recognition he deserves. The first is the swampy “The Time Has Come” that speaks eloquently of its deep blues roots. Wilson’s “Lowdown Woman” shuffles along before Magic Sam’s “Easy Baby” stirs its simmering blues into the mix. “Gotta Have A Horse” is the second Wilson instrumental, another relentless harmonica blowout. Wilson aces another Nighthawk gem, a rollicking “Kansas City” (from 1951, not the 1952 Leiber-Stoller creation).

The closer is nine-minute tour-de-force version of Otis Rush’s classic “So Many Roads,” with a gorgeous two-minute harp intro followed by Wilson’s aching vocal, and more harp woven elegantly throughout.

Wilson, talking about making this album, says:
“The tracks on this album are very special because several of the songs include some of the last
performances in the studio by three great blues giants, Richard Innes, Larry Taylor, and
Barrelhouse Chuck. Basically, everything was recorded the same way they did it in the old days.
Some great blues for you fans, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it.”

“Slow Burn” is a great title for this session of fiery blues, torrid harp work and soulful, torchy vocals. Kim Wilson has added this music to his tough, hard-working blues legacy that thankfully shows no sign of slowing down.

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More Thunderbirds news:

If you’re a T-Birds fan, or if you just want a treasure trove of their musical history, a new box set of their music is now available.

It’s The Jimmie Vaughan Years: Complete Studio Recordings 1978-1989, a comprehensive four-CD box set available through The Last Music Co.

The Jimmie Vaughan Years captures Grammy-winning Vaughan’s blues journey after he cut his teeth in Austin’s late-60s blues scene, including an early recording produced by legendary American songwriter Doc Pomus and Joel Dorn.

“It begins with 13 super-rare unreleased cuts from sessions the T-Birds did for Doc Pomus in 1978 for the potential album that never saw daylight, until now,” says Last Music founder Malcolm Mills. “The five-hour music compilation then follows their career through all the subsequent releases they made on Takoma, Chrysalis, and Epic until Jimmie left the band to pursue his solo career in 1989 — a total of eight albums.”

The Jimmie Vaughan Years includes: The Doc Pomus Recordings 1978, The Fabulous Thunderbirds (Girls Go Wild), What’s The Word?, Butt Rockin’, T-Bird Rhythm, Tuff Enuff, Hot Number, and Powerful Stuff. The box set is packaged as a 12-inch hardback book written and annotated by Bill Bentley, who was an eyewitness to the band’s emergence and rise to fame. His notes, combined with pages full of never-before-seen photos and images, bring to life the story of this band in their heyday.  

“This is the only collection of its kind of Vaughan’s years in the Fabulous Thunderbirds and begins with an album that never saw a release,” Bentley says. “In the late 1970s, celebrated songwriter Doc Pomus heard about the Austin band and brought them to New York to record. Pomus felt something important was there in their music and wanted to share it with the world. Noted producer Joel Dorn signed on to participate and they recorded a full album. Unfortunately, it was an incredible set of songs that never saw the light of day.”

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Here’s a Kim Wilson interview with Blues Blast Magazine

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“Leaving You On My Mind” from the album:

Just for fun, here’s the Robert Nighthawk version of “Kansas City”:

Tracklist & credits:
Track 1 – I’m Trying (Milton Campbell)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Piano: Barrelhouse Chuck
Drums: Marty Dodson
Horns: Johnny Viau

Track 2 – Leaving You On My Mind (Kim Wilson)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Drums: Malachi Johnson

Track 3 – Sweet Little Angel (B.B. King)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Bob Welsh
Piano: Barrelhouse Chuck
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Marty Dodson

Track 4 – Boogie in E (Kim Wilson)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Malachi Johnson

Track 5 – Howlin’ For My Darlin’ (Chester Burnett)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Bob Welsh
Piano: Barrelhouse Chuck
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Marty Dodson

Track 6 – Keep Our Business To Yourself (Sonny Boy Williamson II/Rice Miller)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Drums: Marty Dodson

Track 7 – The Time Has Come (Robert Nighthawk)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Bob Welsh
Piano: Barrelhouse Chuck
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Marty Dodson

Track 8 – Lowdown Women (Kim Wilson)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Malachi Johnson

Track 9 – Easy Baby (Samuel Maghett)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar & Piano: Barrelhouse Chuck
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Malachi Johnson

Track 10 – Gotta Have A Horse (Kim Wilson)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Malachi Johnson

Track 11 – Kansas City (Robert Nighthawk)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Bob Welsh
Piano: Barrelhouse Chuck
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Marty Dodson

Track 12 – So Many Roads (Otis Rush)
Vocals/Harmonica: Kim Wilson
Guitar: Billy Flynn
Bass: Troy Sandow
Drums: Malachi Johnson

Key contributors:
Nathan James – mixing, mastering, production, and performance.
Billy Flynn – guitar and bass on multiple tracks.
Troy Sandow – bass on several tracks.
Marty Dodson, Malachi Johnson, Richard Innes – drums across different sessions.
Barrelhouse Chuck, Bob Welsh, Johnny Viau – piano, guitar, and horns.
The Rhythm Scratchers (Wilson’s bandmates) are highlighted for their one-take quartet recordings.

Sean McDonald — “Have Mercy” — Little Village Foundation

Sean McDonald, just 23, is one of those young new artists, who, when you close your eyes, sounds like he’s been aging in a cask of blues for decades.

“Have Mercy” is McDonald’s first album, a modest collection of nine covers and originals that plays to his strengths as a singer, songwriter and guitarist.

But there’s nothing modest about his talents. A native of Augusta, Ga., McDonald sang in the church as a youngster and learned to play multiple instruments.

McDonald co-produced this sparkling session with Christoffer “Kid” Andersen at Andersen’s Greaseland U.S.A. Studio, with the outstanding studio musicians from the Little Village label who back McDonald with their usual excellence: Jim Pugh on keyboards, June Core on drums, bassist D’Quantae “Q” Johnson, saxmen Eric Spaulding and Jack Sanford, and trombonist Mike Rinta. The Morgan Brothers (formerly the Sons of the Soul Revivors) and Marcel Smith add eloquent backing vocals to the gospel tracks. Sometimes it just takes a Little Village to help make great music.

A rocking cover of Rudy Moore’s “My Soul” opens the album, with McDonald’s upbeat? ? vocal turn a spirited album preview. A pair of originals follows: The tastily R&B-flavored “Fakin’ It” features killer sax with a fierce guitar break; “Killing Me” finds McDonald reaching deep into a sexy slow blues, complete with sensuous sax.

“Rocking in the Same Old Boat” is a gorgeous slow blues recorded by Bobby “Blue” Bland in 1968, and McDonald’s smooth rendition dares to stand on its own. (The composer is credited as Deadric Malone, but that was the penname for influential Duke/Peacock records owner Don Deadric Robey, who often took the credit for songs written by his artists. The interwebs reveal that Vernon Elbert Morrison may have been a composer.)

“Shuffleboard Swing” is a rollicking instrumental that swings the blues behind McDonald’s blistering single-note guitar work. “Angel Baby” is McDonald’s fast and furious Little Richard-inspired rocker, complete with vocal scream and raunchy sax. McDonald testifies mightily with the gospel of “Don’t Let the Devil Ride,” an Oris Mays creation, with a fervent chorus from the Morgan Brothers and Marcel Smith.

The rousing “That’s All I Need” captures the rocking flavor of Ike Turner’s 1959 version complete with call-and-response backup singers. The closer is the elegant Henry Glover blues ballad, “Let’s Call It A Day,” with McDonald smooth as silk on the vocal, and tough as nails on his wicked guitar.

With “Have Mercy,” a youthful Sean McDonald emerges as a full-grown talent. His smart songwriting, rich vocals and stunning guitar all speak eloquently of his musical future, not to mention the future of the blues and our own listening pleasure.

Have mercy, indeed!

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Here’s “Rocking in the Same Old Boat” from the album:

Tracklist:

1. My Soul 3:20 (Rudy Moore)
2. Fakin’ It 3:56 (S. McDonald)
3. Killing Me 5:06 (S. McDonald)
4. Rocking in the Same Old Boat 4:51 (Deadric Malone)
5. Shuffleboard Swing 4:05 (S. McDonald)
6. Angel Baby 3:00 (S. McDonald)
7. Don’t Let the Devil Ride 5:14 (Oris Mays)
8. That’s All I Need 3:10 (Ike Turner)
9. Let’s Call It A Day 3:58 (Henry Glover)

Sean “Mack” McDonald – Vocals, guitar
The Morgan Brothers – Vocals
Marcel Smith – Vocals
Jim Pugh – Piano, organ
D’Quantae “Q” Johnson – Bass
June Core – Drums
Eric Spaulding – Tenor Sax
Jack Sanford – Bari Sax
Mike Rinta – Trombone (4)
Kid Andersen – Guitar (4)
Lisa Leuschner Andersen – Vocal (2)

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters have always been one of my favorite groups, ever since they caught my teenage hormones’ attention, ‘way back in the middle of the 20th century — the 1950s, to be precise.

Their “Greatest Hits” album, released in 1956 on the Federal label, was my first album purchase. I was already hooked on classic doo-wop and early R&B, thanks to Pittsburgh DJ, the Daddio of the Raddio, The Bossman — Porky Chedwick.

But the Midnighters aroused my teen blue genes from their musical slumber. Their furiously styled music was great for dancing, their lyrics magnificently raunchy, giving hope to teens everywhere that there might be, according to one account, “life below the waist,” despite much of the soporific pop from earlier years.

Ballard augmented the horns of more traditional R&B with guitars, driving the music hard behind soaring vocals. The band played a pivotal role in bridging the gap between traditional rhythm and blues and early rock and roll, turning out a series of hits in 1954. Those early sides included a set of deliciously salacious and unabashedly sexual recordings built around the “Annie” songs: “Work With Me Annie” (It sold more than a million copies despite being banned from many radio stations) and “Annie Had a Baby.” But even without that notoriety, the Midnighters created cutting edge R&B that bled into rock ‘n’ roll. Even their more sensitive ballads (“Teardrops on Your Letter,” “Rain Down Tears”) churned with emotion. Ballard would write “The Twist” in 1959, which was turned into a Chubby Checker hit by Dick Clark, earning Ballard royalties, if not fame.

The Midnighters’ eventually faded into the 1960s, and even though they continued to record, their R&B stylings became less relevant. I hadn’t played any of their music for years, and they were unlikely to be found on many modern streaming playlists.

Then a few years ago, radio came back into my life.

I discovered WMNF, a public radio station in Tampa, Fla., and its three weekly hours of music that I loved – The Rhythm Revival, hosted by the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz (William Wirths) and Marvelous Marvin Boone (Marvin Boone). They play great old post-war blues, R&B, country and gospel, and displaying their encyclopedic musical knowledge, connect the dots between all those genres.

The Revival claims several groundbreaking artists as its “patron saints,” including Patsy Cline, Wynonie Harris, and much to my delight, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. The inspiration for this post comes from the Revival’s recent birthday tribute to Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks on Nov. 18, 1927, in Detroit).

The early years of Ballard and the Midnighters’ were filled with much of the shape-shifting, name and personnel changing common to much of the industry. Here are some details of their illustrious career, shamelessly copied from Wikipedia:

In 1953, Ballard joined doo-wop group the Royals, which had previously been discovered by Johnny Otis and signed to Federal Records (a division of King Records), in Cincinnati. Ballard joined Henry Booth, Charles Sutton, Sonny Woods and Alonzo Tucker in the group, replacing previous singer Lawson Smith, who went on service in the Army.

The Royals released “Get It” which Ballard wrote (1953), an R&B song with possibly sexually oriented lyrics, which some radio stations refused to play, although it still made it to number 6 on the US Billboard R&B chart.

The group then changed its name to the Midnighters to avoid confusion with the “5” Royales. In 1954, Ballard wrote a song called “Work with Me, Annie” that was drawn from “Get It”. It became the Midnighters’ first major R&B hit, spending seven weeks at number 1 on the R&B chart and also selling well in mainstream markets, along with the answer songs “Annie Had a Baby” and “Annie’s Aunt Fannie”; all were banned by the FCC from radio airplay. Their third major hit was “Sexy Ways”, a song that cemented the band’s reputation as one of the most risqué groups of the time.

Between 1953 and 1962, the Midnighters had several hits on the U.S. pop and R&B charts. Their hits included the million-selling Billboard top 10 pop hits “Finger Poppin’ Time” (for which they received a 1961 Grammy Award nomination),^[1] and “Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go”. The Midnighters also had 13 top 10 R&B hits, including three that reached number 1. Their top 10 R&B hits included “Work with Me, Annie”, “It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)”, “Annie Had a Baby”, “The Hoochi Coochi Coo”, “Teardrops on Your Letter”, “Get It”, “The Float” and “Nothing but Good”.

They received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s prestigious Pioneer Award in 1992, and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. The Midnighters are also noted for achieving a music industry milestone in 1960, by becoming the first group in history to place 3 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. The group’s lead singer, Hank Ballard, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The Midnighters as a group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14, 2012.

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters deserve a unique place in American musical history. They created a sound that would shake rhythm and blues, rattle its bones, and roll it into the primitive days of rock ‘n’ roll.

Best of all, the Midnighters still sound damn fine!

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Here are three songs that helped define Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: