Barrelhouse Chuck And The All-Star Blues Band – Got My Eyes On You – The Sirens Records SR-5014

He thrilled audiences around the world with his complete and total devotion to the blues, a covenant he made many years ago when he came northward to Chicago to immerse himself in the world of not only his revered blues piano heroes, but the blues culture itself.  Barrelhouse did it the right way, gaining the trust of the blues piano titans who were still plying their high levels of craft in joints all over late 1970s Chicago and going forward; living with them, learning unique individual techniques from them, absorbing their stories, and using their advice on the blues world, and the world in general, as life scholarship.  However, he didn’t confine his energies to the blues piano icons solely; no, he made it his mission to make faithful long-term relationships with the great city’s dense mass of blues artists, gaining cherished inroads into their personal histories and wisdom. 

Over time, Barrelhouse, along with the esteemed Erwin Helfer, became the last of a very distinctive tradition of blues piano in Chicago, as one-by-one, Sunnyland, Blind John, Big Moose, Little Brother, Detroit, Jr., and Pinetop, among others, played their last keyboard runs.  And when Chuck departed way too early in 2016, blues fans everywhere who knew the exceptional man and personality that he was, and of his vast blues keyboard competencies, shed tears, and the blues world seemed undeniably more vacant.  

Barrelhouse was at the top of his game on this matchless collection, and true to his determined goal, it presents his blues visions in the best light, befitting of the man whose dedication to the art form never, ever wavered.

On this outing, Barrelhouse surrounded himself with a prestigious cast of like-minded blues artisans, including the rhythm section of Muddy Waters Band alums Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Calvin “Fuzz” Jones providing the sterling percussion and bass efforts, respectively, the tandem dynamite guitar excursions of Joel Foy and Eddie Taylor, Jr., and Kim Wilson blowing impressive harmonica.

Barrelhouse pays heavy homage here to his blues heroes, with songs from bluesmen including Floyd Jones, Detroit, Jr., Eddie Taylor, Memphis Slim, and nourishing reverences and tunes from Barrelhouse himself including the outstanding “Iza Mae.”  But throughout this disc, as I reveled in it and soaked up its might, two hallowed blues names came to me over and over again; Sunnyland Slim and Little Brother Montgomery, two of Barrelhouse’s greatest blues and life influences.

Barrelhouse’s rock-solid left-hand expeditions, his vibrant right-hand marauds, his careful, explicitly delivered lyrics, and his song interpretations as executed by him and his all-star cast of sidemen leave no doubt as to his commitment to the blues and its importance to him.

I miss my friend Barrelhouse Chuck; but then again, many, many people experience that same melancholy.  He was a bright light for a Chicago blues piano tradition that was, and is, dimming.  Without any reservation, this collection is one to behold and treasure.

This CD belongs on the shelves of your blues collection. 

Essential blues!