Lightnin' Willie and the Poorboys - Blue Lightning (2016)

Bluesman Lightnin’ Willie has a distinctive approach to his music. The sound is an irresistible blend of tradition and spontaneous creativity, with a deliciously insidious emphasis on the groove. It is a compelling, hard swinging brand of blues that, whenever he performs, packs the floor—his audience can’t not dance.

A guitarist of impressive facility, a vocalist of coolly stylish authority and a composer of persuasive original blues that both extend and enhance the idiom, Willie’s music has a rare individualistic quality. It is at once airy and full of open space yet also loaded with earthy, intense emotion, and as featured on his new Pete Anderson produced album Lightnin’ Willie, it showcases a master at the top of his game.

Lightnin’ Willie operates at a high altitude in the wild blues yonder, and his impressive reach is the result of a near lifelong musical journey. Barely out of his teens, the Texas-born musician toured the Southern chitlin circuit as the only white member of an R&B-funk band, absorbing a powerful dose of deep insider information, rich both in technique and spirit. Gigging as a solo headliner for almost three decades, Willie has gone from low down beer joints to become a staple on the international festival circuit, with plenty of wild stops along the way, from London’s Royal Albert Hall to Willie Nelson’s infamous 4th of July Picnic, where he appeared alongside Willie, Bob Dylan and Leon Russell...