Monster Love

Album Review

The older brother to Nick Moss — who already had some well-received albums under his belt when this was released in late 2003 — Chicago guitarist Joe Moss sizzles on his debut. A veteran of Buddy Scott's band as well as a sideman to Magic Slim, Billy Branch, and other Windy City luminaries, the older Moss sounds confident and mature on his first album as a leader. Although there is plenty of straight-ahead blues, Moss aims for a more R&B-laced approach, helped immensely by the addition of organ (no less than three musicians fill the keyboard slot) on most tracks and horns to a few others. He also possesses a low-key but potent voice, similar to Jimmie Vaughan, and delivers these songs with enthusiasm and a tough determination. The organ is an integral part of the sound, and songs like "Ain't Got No Money," with its extended solo, succeed in large part due to the Jimmy Smith jazz/funk feel of the keyboards. Moss' guitar style is clean, sharp, and free of extraneous effects. Reminiscent of Mike Bloomfield, his leads are biting yet fluid and easily adapt to jazz, funk, blues, and even the Delta style he displays on the album's unaccompanied closing "Train Tracks." Moss brings a Booker T. & the MG's feel to the Memphis-styled groove of "Lost My World" and "Mad, Mad, Mad," and seems as comfortable with that as with the traditional Elmore James shuffle of B.B. King's "Please Love Me," one of the album's two covers. His lean playing dispenses with the rock-oriented histrionics that clutter much new blues, especially from white artists. He capitalizes on this style as his lines punctuate the verses of the soul and subtle funk that remain at the heart of his approach. It makes this long-awaited debut a perfect introduction to one of the finest of the new-generation Chicago bluesmen. Joe Moss has learned from his predecessors, even as he creatively takes the basics of blues and shifts them into a more soulful stew that is just as moving.