Search - Michael Hill's Blues Mob :: Have Mercy

Michael Hill, from the Bronx, is an outstanding guitarist with a social worker's acute awareness of life around him--a pair of attributes that meld together effectively for the modern blues of his second album. His able singing of lyrics--on bigotry, homelessness, street violence, Mother Africa, gender equality, and other topics--is integrated with his Blues Mob's alluring blend of electric blues, high- decibel rock, funk, and reggae. Hill's frequent solos are real head- turners, telling exclamatory stories that emphasize the message in the words of his original songs. He also transforms the age-old, tough-guy tale "Staggerlee" into a modern parable and takes his band way, way deep into Chicago blues for as rousing a treatment of boogie man Hound Dog Taylor's "She's Gone" as you'll hear anywhere. --Frank-John Hadley