The Kilborn Alley Blues Band

Better Off Now

Blue Bella

By David Leucinger

There's a school of thought that says you really can't judge a band until its second or third CD -- allowing for band members to develop a rapport that stays consistent, whether live or in the studio. By that measure, the Kilborn Alley Blues Band more than passes the test. Their third release, Better Off Now, solidly moves through 1950s, '60s and '70s blues and soul styles, addressing each without a forced sense of nostalgia.

Like the best back alley mechanics, these guys get down and gritty in order to make the songs run with smooth finesse, just like a well-tuned engine. A case in point is the song which producer/label head Nick Moss contributed, "Watch It," a magnetic mid-tempo call-and-response number that features the soulful vocals of Andrew Duncanson. Like a mechanic using Gojo hand cleaner, the talented singer works up a soothing lather that retains just enough grit to break down the greasy dirt. Musically, it’s the perfect balance between smooth and rough.

Another standout is the "Train To Memphis," a funky track with a taut, percussive guitar riff reminiscent of Jimmy Dawkins. Joe Asselin’s vibrato style harmonica, which sounds as if he’s channeling Carey Bell, counterpoises Josh Stimmel’s guitar. It's a cut that surely packs the dance floors when performed live.

Perhaps the best standout tracks are two atmospheric pieces straight out of the Muscle Shoals tradition, "Better Off Now" and "Tonight," with guest musician Eric Michaels' organ setting the tone for a closing-time soliloquy.

It isn't just the instrumentation and vocals that pack a wallop; the lyrics of the leadoff track, "Nothin' Left To Stimulate," rip through the current economic woes with acerbic accuracy. It's echoed at the end by the CD's one classic cover, John Brim's "Hard Times," a spot-on coda for the no-frills, no-nonsense body of work on the mostly original CD.

All nine of the original songs on Better Off Now were written collectively by the five-piece band: frontman/vocalist/guitarist Andrew Duncanson, Joe Asselin on harp, Josh Stimmel on guitar, bassist Chris Breen and drummer Ed O’Hara. The group’s musical style is very much in the ensemble tradition of Chicago blues artists like Muddy Waters. Kilborn Alley shows remarkable maturity, depth and music history smarts considering that Duncanson and Breen were still in high school in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois when they started the band back in 2000. Kilborn Alley’s founding members cut their teeth on Chicago’s titans of blues and R&B: Muddy, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and all of the Chess artists, along with Little Milton, Tyrone Davis and Johnnie Taylor.  They also were exposed to traditional blues and soul artists who performed on their local club scene in a college town filled with bars.

Discovered in a downstate bar by Nick Moss, Kilborn Alley released its debut CD in 2007 to critical acclaim.  They went on to earn two Blues Music Award nominations for their first two CDs on Blue Bella, the aptly titled discs Put it in the Alley and Tear Chicago Down. In 2009, the quintet won the “Sean Costello Rising Star Award” from the Blues Blast Music Awards.

Here's hoping the Kilborn Alley guys keep on delivering more solid material like this on subsequent releases and to an ever-expanding group of clubs and festivals across the Midwest and beyond.

Dave Leucinger has been a music writer and photographer for almost 20 years. He co-hosts "Two For The Blues" (with Art Schuna) on Saturday evenings from 8 – 10 p.m. on WORT, 89.9 FM, in Madison, WI. The station webstream and show archives can be accessed at www.wort-fm.org.