Low ceilinged juke joint moods are created by guitarists and growling vocalist Kurt Allen with a Moose Lodging crew of Craw Lew/b, Lester Estelle Jr/dr, Beaux Lux/key-ts, Pete Carroll/tp and Trevor Turla/tb on a decalogue of foot stomping originals.
There is one reflective and pretty piece featuring Lux’s soft keyboards guided by Estelle’s soft cymbals on “Count On Me”, but that’s just to serve as a chance for the packed house to go get a drink at the bar for the rest of the swinging night. Allen pulls off some hard hitting Chuck Berry riffs on the boogie-ing “Sweet T” while growling between licks on the Aerosmithy “Graveyard Blues” and creating a double guitar line with the saxes on the title piece. Allen takes a trip to Chicago with some muddy waters on the fuzzy “Cry Mercy” and sears through “How Long”. Lew lays down a hip bass line on the Stevie Wonderish “Funkalicious” and gets into an R&B groove on “Voodoo Queen” with Lux blowing like King Curtis on the rock steady “Roadrunner”. Belly up to the bar on this one.