Alex Dixon is a bassist, producer, pianist and grandson of perhaps the blues greatest songwriter, Willie Dixon. Alex learned the idiom from his grandfather at an early age and has long wanted to deliver a traditional Chicago blues album as he does here with The Real McCoy. Dixon delivers a mix of originals and well-known covers associated with Otis Rush, Howlin’ Wolf, and some lesser-known Chicago blues artists. Dixon assembles some of the best traditional players and features an unknown until now vocalist Lewis “Big Lew” Powell, who has the requisite ‘force of nature’ vocal chops to deliver these tunes.
The lineup of second and even third-generation musicians include one of the best traditional blues harpists, Steve Bell, son of harp master Carey Bell, and a mainstay in John Primer’s band. Sugar Blue, another Chicago-based harpist, who has a jazzy, inventive style plays on three tracks. Guitarists include Chicago veteran Melvin Taylor, well-regarded Rico McFarland (two tracks) (Sugar Blue, Lucky Peterson, Albert King), Gino Matteo and Joey Delgado (two tracks) (Delgado Brothers), as well as Alex’s daughter Leila who sings on “Nothing New Under the Sun” all, are aboard. Alex teamed with engineer Aaron Mason for the sound and worked with co-producer Alvin Bennett (Cash McCall, Mighty Joe Young, Koko Taylor) who also played drums. Dixon plays electric bass, upright bass, and piano.
Dixon relates this to some of the players – “I’ve known Steve Bell since I was 11 years old—we grew up on the South Side together. Sugar Blue is on there also. I’ve known those guys for a long time. Melvin Taylor is a phenomenal guitar player. We had a studio on the South Side of Chicago called the Blues Factory, and he used to come around when I was a kid and jam with us.”
Alex produced an album with the late Chicago great Cash McCall and later went on to deliver his own set of blues-rock material. He first met Powell during the 2015 Chicago Blues Festival where Powell was singing with Nellie Travis., a protégé of Koko Taylor, for whom his grandfather’s “Wang Dang Doodle” was a big hit in 1965. Alex says this about Powell, “I knew he could sing, but I wasn’t sure what my next project was going to be like. But we started to talk, and we realized we had a similar passion when it came to the blues and what we wanted to do. We went into the studio to see what he could do, and I realized that this was going to be the right guy for me – and a guy that nobody would ever see coming, because nobody had ever heard him sing.” Powell’s potent vocals are truly a major feature of this effort, especially since most will recognize a good portion of the material.
The covers are “Groaning the Blues” (recorded by Otis Rush for Cobra in 1957), “Howlin’ for My Darlin’”(written with and cut by Howlin’ Wolf for Chess in 1959), “Spider in My Stew”(a hit for Buster Benton on Supreme in 1973) and “When I Make Love” (by Margie Evans on Willie Dixon’s own Yambo Records in 1973).
Alex’s originals include the single “Nothing New Under the Sung” with its “Mannish Boy” riffs and Leila on background, the boogie title track, and the funky “10,000 Miles Away,” written with several band members and featuring Delgado on guitar, and “Chi-Town Boogie” in both vocal and instrumental versions, both of which are certifiable roof raisers. All have Bell on blues harp. For smoldering, slow blues turn to “My Greatest Desire,” a showcase for Sugar Blue’s harp and one of Powell’s best vocal turns.
This is pure, unfiltered blues that would make his grandfather Willie proud. Except for the clearer sound, this could be a record from the glorious Chess era. You may even want to try playing this for friends and having them guess what year it was recorded. They will likely choose some vintage year. As Alex says, “I wanted to do a traditional blues album –all the stuff I used to play when I was younger. I tried to bring in guys we could have fun within the studio. When I would go to the studio with my grandfather, it was always a great time. I was writing these new songs, and people were saying to me, ‘That’s like something your grandfather would write.’ I said, ‘Well, he taught me how to write blues, so of course I know how to write how he wrote.”
Alex not only learned to write; he proves he can deliver a pure blues album played by superior players too.
