Willie & The Whips - Homage (2016)

The debut album ‘Homage’ from Seattle quartet Willie and the Whips does just what the title implies, pays homage to the heroes of many a working blues band with dedicated love. The eight-track collection was recorded live off the floor in Seattle in order to capture the raw, unsophisticated, and fully enthusiastic playing of a rocking band, the likes of which we haven’t heard since the early days of the British invasion when young groups like the Stones, the Yardbirds and Blues Breakers dared take on the Blues Masters.
The album opens with a fuzzed-out run at “Got My Mojo Working” that sets us up for the five-minute sludge blues “Thunder,” penned by bandleader Will Morgan. They then return to the Delta for a groovy reading of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Shake’em On Down,” featuring great harp from Kevin Bean that segues into “Poor Black Mattie,” a mysterious blues from deep blues master RL Burnside, who inspired a whole new generation to mix punk rock and blues.
The band cites Jerry Garcia as the influence for the inclusion of traditional folk song “Peggy O,” which they deliver with a sweet, Dead-like, lilting country jam improvisation. The two-minute rip through Jimmy Reed staple “I Aint Got You” leaves you wanting more, and Will Morgan does his best John Mayall while reinventing a Magic Sam riff and creating his own tune, “She Loves Me.” Kevin Bean then shows off his Junior Wells studies for his tune, “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down.”
This album should have been released on vinyl to complete the feel of a gritty urban blues relic from a more open-minded time.