The Backsters: Live & Jumpin

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

Recent articles (1,695 total)

Published: August 1, 1999

Da Blooze. The Backsters are a merry little quartet who play a stripped-down brand of Chicago blues that bleeds into and takes advantage of the current swing craze. The songs are the standard fair, some wise choices (“Three Times a Fool”, “Tilt A Whirl”), some not so wise (“Further on Up The Road”, “Caledonia”). All songs are characterized by the fine, bell-like tone of John Marx’s guitar and Joel Peskin’s bar-walkin’ tenor saxophone. This is music that owes more to T Bone Walker and B.B. King than to Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy.

What’s New?. The last ground-breaking bluesman was Stevie Ray Vaughan, and he really was only an extension of Jimi Hendrix. So is there really a need of another blues band. The answer is YES! And recorded live to boot. In spite of an old formula, leather-worn standards, and a ride on current coattails, the Backsters make the music as fresh and immediate at a hot bratwurst and a cold Old Style at Soldier Field on a Fall night. There is always room.

Track Listing: Three Times a Fool; Caledonia; Hold It Right There; Mean Old World; Further On Up The Road Later Than You Think; Reconsider Baby; These Blues; Tilt a Whirl; Years Go Passing By (Total Playing Time 52:54).

Personnel: Joel C. Peskin: Tenor Saxophone; John Marx: Vocals, Guitar; Domenic Genova: Acoustic and Electric Basses; Mike Kowalski: Drums.

Record Label: Zebra Records
Style: Blues