The Backsters

The Backsters: Live & Jumpin

by C. Michael Bailey
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 ...