Living Blues Review

Ronny Hicks plays keys for Cadillac Dave and His Chicago Redhots, while veteran of Chicago soul group Heaven and Earth Keith Stewart provides backing vocals, and oversaw Johnson’s vocal arrangements. Johnson’s opening salvo, They Call Me Big Llou, is an infectious, chest puffed proclamation with Mannish Boy–like braggadocio (“I can stick, I can move, I can really throw it down”). Dogg borrows a page from the George Clinton book of funk, with Johnson spilling vocal teases like “you know players gonna play/runnin’ games every day/ what more can I say,” with a telltale, ever-so slightly devious half-grin.

Git Me Some is a more traditional, Chess era type blues track, with mimicking guitar/ vocal lines, while Armirris Palmore’s Rayettes inspired backing accompaniment gives the song a ray of gospel sunshine. Johnson slow burns B.B. King’s Rock Me Baby to simmering perfection, his voice gliding like silk across the undulating rhythm bed while Russ Green fills the pockets with taut harp. Johnson covers Barry White’s Your Sweetness Is My Weakness with uncanny accuracy, likely melting the hearts of any female listeners along the way, while a cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s Three Hundred Pounds of Joy twists the original into a full-on funk party, Johnson letting himself go with his voice carrying beyond the bottom register in a fit of groove-nirvana. Johnson’s lascivious charisma and wink of an eye to the good times leave the listener in a body-bobbing rush that lasts for days. —Mark Uricheck


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