I-94 Blues

The blues gave birth to so many pop-music clichés and so much of its recklessness, yet even when the Cash Box Kings' Oscar Wilson begs, in a raffish drawl, "don't say I don't love you because I stays out all night long," it's laid over instrumental conversation worthy of a high-minded jazz act. Many harmonica players would be tempted to drunkenly honk away over Barrelhouse Chuck's piano trills on "Country Boy" (best known for Muddy Waters' version). Joe Nosek's harp practically sneaks around it, nudging Joel Paterson's slide-guitar lead into back-and-forth that might as well be taking place on a couple of rocking chairs.

I-94 Blues (which the Cash Box Kings will celebrate with a guest-laden show this Saturday at the Crystal Corner Bar) spans 15 tracks of staunchly old-school blues, yet this kind of live-in-studio interplay invests each with a sense of possibility that many listeners—and indeed players—have trouble grasping in the genre. Six guest players join the four main Kings in this revolving-door collaboration of an album, meshing not only with the understated mastery of the beyond-tight, but with a friendly sense of humor.

At least, that's the only explanation for the five-person instrumental workout on "Quesadilla Boogie," on which guitarist Billy Flynn switches over to mandolin, one of many acoustic parts that add warmth and depth to the album's mix. Flynn's banjo and Nosek's vocals stagger wryly together through "I-94 Blues," lamenting a failed long-distance romance Midwest-style. Jimmy Sutton's stand-up bass and Paterson's acoustic guitar lead the song into a break that takes more from gypsy-jazz as it does from the Delta. The recording (courtesy of Madison's recently closed Smart Studios) captures all these twists in a full-bodied space where a convincing blues feel only helps to expand the range of some excellent musicianship.