THE MANNISH BOYS "BIG PLANS" Source: Living Blues Magazine Date: 06/2007 Writer: David Whiteis

There isn’t a whole lot original going on here, but from the first note the party is so raucous and unfettered that you hardly ever notice. The Manish Boys seem to be in command of virtually every classic, neo-classic, obscure, and almost-unknown riff and lick in the postwar cannon, and they approach, it all with unfettered enthusiasm and commitment. Finis Tasby’s vocals are joyously unhinged; guitarists Kid Ramos and Frank “Paris Slim” Goldwasser fuse grungy intensity with uptown elegance; and both Johnny Dyer and producer Randy Chortkoff blow hawk-squall harp in the grand Chicago style.

The contributions of various guests up the ante even higher. Jody Williams, sassy and classy as always, reprises Groan My Blues Away, one of his earliest ‘50s-era Chess recordings, his chords and leads shimmering like quicksilver beneath his fingers; he digs just as eagerly into Young & Tender, a new Chortkoff composition. Rob Rio contributes appropriately strong-throated vocals to Otis Rush’s My Baby’s a Good’Un, on which Ramos’s guitar eloquently captures Rush’s vintage meld of hot-blooded ebullience and soul-chilling intensity. Chicago-based vocalist Bobby Jones oozes grits-and-gravy hipness on Wolf’s California Blues and Mannish Boys bassist Tom Leavey’s Mary Jane.

The Mannish Boys don’t bother with self-indulgent pyrotechnics; of the 16 tracks here, the longest is Walkin’ Down Fillmore, which clocks in at 4:39. But when musicians with chops like this pour into everything they touch, less can truly be more. Let’s hope more modern-day blues artists listen and learn.