Nick Moss and the Flip Tops

Nick Moss got his start playing bass with Jimmy Dawkins. He then joined (and recorded with) the Legendary Blues Band before switching over to guitar in the mid-’90s and spending three years with Jimmy Rogers, a vital member of Muddy Waters’ band back in the ’50s. It’s obvious that he’s learned his lessons well. This two-CD set presents the two sides of Moss—electric and acoustic—in company with his band: Willie Oshawny (keyboards), Gerry Hundt (harp) and Bob Carter (drums). Both discs are full of the raw energy typified by Muddy, Wolf, Dawkins and other Windy City bluesmen. All but three songs on disc one are Moss’ and epitomize the workingman’s approach he brings to his music, which is, of course, meant to be played in bars … not concert halls. Alternating between relaxed items like Floyd Jones’ “Rising Wind” (with guest guitarist Eddie Taylor Jr. alongside) and uptempo goods like his own instrumental “The Rump Bump” (with Hundt on second guitar), Moss and his men dig into the music with considerable skill and feeling. The acoustic side is equally hot! Especially the opener, a burning “You’ve Got the Devil Inside.”