Nick Moss (left) and Dennis Gruenling get it going on Get Your Back Into It!
By David McGee
GET YOUR BACK INTO IT!
The Nick Moss Band
Alligator Records (2023 release)
From Pierce Downer’s adrenaline-fueled drum roll kicking off the festivities in “The Bait in the Snare” to the robust twang of Nick Moss’s twangy surf guitarand guest Gordon Beadle’s wailing sax driving the instrumental album closer, “Scratch ‘N’ Sniff,” the Nick Moss Band featuring harmonica master Dennis Gruenling returns in merciless fashion on Get Your Back Into It! With unflagging energy, the band roars through blues touching down in Chicago, Texas and West Coast styles over the course the dozen Moss and two Gruenling originals comprising one of the Moss band’s finest long players in recent years. East, West and in between, it all sounds right and righteous in the extreme.
‘Choose Wisely,’ The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Grueling, from Get Your Back Into It!
‘Living in Heartache,’ The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Grueling, from Get Your Back Into It!
‘Scratch ‘N’ Sniff,’ The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Grueling, from Get Your Back Into It!
The hard charging jump of “The Bait in the Snare” finds Moss offering guidelines on avoiding corrosive temptations as he and Gruenling underscore the message’s urgency with searing solos. Hitting a Texas groove on “Choose Wisely,” Taylor Streiff sets a honky-tonk vibe to work on piano, Beadle roars on sax, and Gruenling wails on harp as Moss emphatically declares: “You can change your course/or live a life of remorse…” Gritty and raw quintessential Chicago blues comes in the form of “Living in Heartache,” which is actually more upbeat than the title or the grinding, razor-edge guitar and harp work would let on, with Moss delivering comforting, supportive sentiments to a forlorn lover even as Gruenling wails like the bastard son of Little Walter in high dudgeon. For a humorous detour, dig “It Shocks Me Out,” a roaring tribute to the band’s stalwart bass man, Brazil native Rodrigo Mantovani, who earns effusive praise from an energetic Moss that inspires a couple of succinct, slapping bass solos in stop-time passages. Apart from the messaging herein, the band further change course, without remorse, on the aforementioned surf instrumental and another, “Out of the Woods,” led by John Kattke’s robust organ and Beadle’s honking sax on a jubilant jump blues reminiscent of late ‘40s-early ‘50s small combo workouts. Louis Jordan would love it, so why not you?
