A sleeper pick for this year's Top Ten CD list will undoubtedly be Midnight Creep (Rhythm & Roll), the debut album from a bunch of young Colorado hepcats going by the name Easy Bill & The Big Beat. This is retro jump-style blues at its finest, led by guitarist and bandleader Easy Bill Towber. The disc opens with the hard-driving Jimmy McCracklin number, "Gonna Tell Your Mother," featruring hot harp from Gerry Hundt. Next up is the juicy blues of "Starving For Your Love," with the suggestive line "... I'm starving for your love, but you're serving it all over town..."  "Swinging On A Vine" is a novelty-style stop-time blues with fine sax backing from Ken Plum. "Down Boy" is a vintage number in the style of Louis Jordan; sax man Plum gets to contribute another hot solo halfway through the tune, as does pianist Mark Richardson. The latter provides the intro to the more mellow, jazzy Towber original, "Spending Time" --- very tasty, indeed. Towber shows off his big-bodied, full-sounding guitar on the Johnny "Guitar" Watson number, "One Kiss," with enticing background vocals from Heidi Hamill. The album closes with an instrumental, "Side-Track," that allows all band members to strut their stuff, but it's Richardson's piano work that really stands out. Add Midnight Creep to your shopping list, and be sure to also check out the band's fine looking website.

Blues Bytes
May/June 2004
www.bluenight.com/bluesbytes/

(Originally appeared in the May/June 2004 Blues Bytes "What's New")