Son Seals – Midnight Son – Alligator Records AL 4708

Seals’ blues were hard-hitting, and relentless in their drive and impact.  Seals’ ferocious guitar wallop, strong songwriting, and anxious vocals presented to the blues realm the work of a craftsman who was presaged as one of the most principal and thrilling contemporary bluesmen to come along in a very long time. 

This 1976 Seals collection, at the time of its release, was proclaimed to be the one that firmly launched him into the consciousness of all blues fans.  It established his standing as one of the most important modern-day Chicago blues practitioners to break out of the joints he was playing on the big city’s south and west sides.

Certainly, The Son Seals Blues Band release on Alligator Records, a 1973 outing, announced that something very significant was occurring, and the collection’s more pared-back sound was blues of the highest order, a dark and foreboding introduction to all that Seals was about.  It was a highly extraordinary straight-ahead blues assemblage, the kind which blues enthusiasts were demanding at the time of its release.

Along came Midnight Son three years later, and Seals brought to bear the full weight of a contemporary blues outfit.  Accompanying him on this release are bass great Harry “Snapper” Mitchum, Bert “Top Hat” Robinson plying exacting drumming frameworks, Steve Plair with his ideal rhythm guitar backing, Alberto Gianquinto on swimming keyboard ventures, and a vibrant horn and woodwind attack from trumpeter Kenneth Cooper, tenor saxophonist Reggie Allmon, and Bill McFarland on trombone.  Obviously, the fuller band offered Seals to reach for and realize his grand blues visions, and on that front, and many others, he successfully did so.

Seals’ piercing guitar enterprises flow forward with cutting embellishments, and is now, in retrospect, instantly distinguishable for its blistering metallic detonations; it doesn’t so much slit and gash as it cores and guts in its greatness.  His guitar is entirely an expansion of the desertions and sorrows Seals articulated in his writing and vocals.

Likewise, Seals’ vocal efforts bellow his anguish, and hemorrhage of relationship ordeals, all put across with a full-throated inferno of agony. 

The full band approach brings Seals’ blues to another level of aural brilliance, and showed that Chicago contemporary blues could very effectively blend layers of woodwind and horn sorties into the day’s blues.

Numerous of the cuts found here long remained staples of a “live” Seals show, including the jaunty “Four Full Seasons Of Love,” a brisk romp where Seals outlines his idyllic mate.

Whenever I would take in a Seals performance at B.L.U.E.S., B.L.U.E.S. etcetera, Wise Fools Pub, or any other joint in Chicago, at a blues festival, or some other venue, he in no way ever dissatisfied.  Even when his health was weakening, that bellowing cannon of a voice sustained in its ability to amaze and move me, as did his potent and exploding guitar treks.

Seals’ unswerving production of superior work made him a fan and critic preference.  One eavesdropping on this Chicago bluesman’s second Alligator Records release will turn you into a dedicated Seals fan, if you aren’t already by now.

This is a trenchant reservoir of Chicago blues that needs to have a place in any serious blues collection. 

Highly essential!