Playing rough and ready blues with unmitigated intensity, Lil' Ed & The Imperials are musically electrifying and downright fun.
LIL’ ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS — SLIDEWAYS
Bio written by Marc Lipkin
“Lil’ Ed Williams is a slide guitarist extraordinaire…electrifying and raucous. He represents one of the few authentic links to pure Chicago blues.” –The Chicago Tribune
“Outrageous, forceful Chicago blues slide-guitar…piping hot energy…Lil’ Ed is a star of the first magnitude.” –DownBeat
“Muscular, scalding, explosive guitar…incendiary soul played with fiery intensity. This doesn’t just rock the house; it threatens to blow the whole thing down...a raw-boned tour-de-force, raucously felt and blisteringly articulated.” –Blues Revue
For nearly 40 years together, Blues Hall Of Famers Lil’ Ed Williams and The Blues Imperials—bassist (and Ed’s half brother) James “Pookie” Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton—have been delivering gloriously riotous, intensely emotional, wickedly playful Chicago blues to audiences around the world. Lil’ Ed—like his musical forebearers, slide guitar masters J.B. Hutto (Ed’s uncle), Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor—is among the giants of the genre. His celebratory slide work, deep blues string bending, fervent vocals and riveting original songs, all powered by The Blues Imperials’ rock-solid, road-tested, telepathic musicianship, are as real and hard-hitting as Chicago blues gets. According to Guitar World, “The band is a snarling boogie-blues machine.”
Now, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials return with Slideways, their 10th Alligator Records release, and perhaps the crowning achievement of their entire career. Mixing smoking slide guitar boogies and raw-boned shuffles with the deepest soul-burners and heart-wrenching slow blues, Lil’ Ed Williams and The Blues Imperials bring it all back home, playing each track with an impassioned sense of wild abandon. The Boston Globe says Lil’ Ed plays “positively scorching guitar,” and the band delivers “a classic Chicago vibe with an energy that’s timeless.”
Produced by Williams and Alligator Records founder and president Bruce Iglauer, Slideways is a dynamic, high-energy collection of 13 songs, including 12 written or co-written by Williams. With the band at the absolute height of their powers, Williams’ singing and playing is thrilling and at times hair-raising. The songs—eight featuring the deep blues keyboard playing of Ben Levin (“He’s got that old-time style,” says Williams)—are filled with simple, relatable truths. They feature colorful characters in humorous to harrowing situations, some sinning while grinning, others smiling while crying. From the high-octane opener Bad All By Myself to the feral 13th Street And Trouble to the home wrecking Flirt In The Car Wash Skirt to Lil’ Ed’s heartbreaking and soul-shattering reinvention of Homeless Blues, Slideways is a tour-de-force of old school Chicago blues performed with up-to-the-minute urgency.
Williams says the new album captures the band in all its glory, and Iglauer brought out the best in each member. “Bruce challenged us. He pulled things out of me I didn’t expect, and I’m glad he did. Pookie worked his butt off and played great. Mike always plays something cool. He lays the flavor down the way I like it. And Kelly, he’s a wildman. He makes me stomp my foot even harder than normal.”
With Slideways’ endlessly enjoyable music, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials provide an entry point for new listeners as much as a welcome home to long time “Ed Heads” all over the world. After almost four decades, the band’s authentic, unvarnished blues and their infectious energy, joyful showmanship and masterful performances have been honed to a razor’s edge. Even so, they continue to push each other to greater musical heights. “I love my guys to the point of no return,” adds Lil’ Ed. “They always surprise me.” As for the band’s durability, he says, “What I love is that we’re a family, and families stay together.”