Will Wilde's Raw Blues might take listeners back to days of yore when the newest batch of blues heroes were just as likely to emerge from London as any place on the other side of the Atlantic. Not that Wilde's style explicitly evokes the '60s/'70s salad days of John Mayall, Peter Green, et al.; his blend of blues influences and rock-informed edge is all his own. Yet he's one of the few British blues players to come along since then who seems like he could make a stateside impact. Wilde sings with no shortage of passion or grit, but the real weapon of mass destruction on Raw Blues is his harmonica work. Plenty of modern blues harpists can let off rapid-fire licks, but Wilde's tone is so thick and electric that you could almost mistake him for a guitarist at times. And whether he's blowing and belting over the R&B-inflected groove of "Thirty Eight" or the straight Chicago-style shuffle of "What Makes People," he packs a powerful dose of unadulterated emotion and energy into each cut here.