PHANTOM BLUES BAND "OUT OF THE SHADOWS" Source: Living Blues Magazine Date: 02/2007 Writer: Lee Hildebrand

There are few better bands performing urban blues and classic R&B today than the Phantom Blues Band, an all-star group that backed Taj Mahal on three CDs and had one self-released CD of its own. Work with Taj earned the guys two Grammy Awards and a W.C. Handy, yet the band has been largely unknown to the blues-buying public. Formerly a studio group, the septet is finally stepping out on its own with live performances and a brilliant second CD for the mighty little Delta Groove label. 

    Organist Mike Finnigan, perhaps the most commanding white male soul singer in the business, fronts the Phantom Blues Band with guitarist-vocalist Johnny Lee Schell. Finnigan, whose credits include work with Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, and Carlos Santana, is originally from Kansas. Former Bonnie Raitt sideman Schell is a native of Texas, as are the five other members: second guitarist Denny Freeman, bassist-vocalist Larry Fulcher, drummer Tony Braunagel, trumpeter Darrell Leonard, and saxophonist Joe Sublett. New Orleans pianist Jon Cleary augments the band on many selections, and Taj blows harmonica on one.

    The members’ master musicianship on Out Of The Shadows is matched by a very thoughtfully chosen repertoire of mostly seldom-performed songs from the ’50s through the ’70s. They include the Meters’ Do The Dirt, Lowell Fulson’s My Aching Back, Syl Johnson’s I Only Have Love, Hank Ballard’s Rain Down Tears, Jesse Winchester’s I’m Looking For A Miracle, Don & Dewey’s Big Boy Pete, Little Willie John’s Let Them Talk, the Heptones’ Book Of Blues (sung by Fulcher, a former session player with the Wailers, Third World, and Andrew Tosh), Jimmy McCracklin’s Think, Bobby Bland’s Yield Not To Temptation, and Ray Charles’ Mary Ann. Finnigan handles the majority of the lead vocals, singing with great passion in a gritty, remarkably pliant low tenor. He’s especially soulful on the disc’s two slow blues: Little Johnny Taylor’s Part Time Love (into which he injects a bit of Everybody Knows About My Good Thing) and his own Baby Doll.