Earth toned guitarist Andy Rothsten swings, rocks and blueses up a collection of (mostly)original instrumentals with a muscular team of Ton Senatore/b, Andrea Valentini-Tom Cottone, D. Pappas/keys, Steve Jankowski/tp-tb and Tim Timko-Ken Gioffre/ts-bs. The album sounds like a mix of vintage sophisticated Steely Dan as on the samba’d “CAB 804” or the early days of Chicago when they actually had some guts, as on the stomping “Blues” and “Mystic Mud”. There’s even a dash of The Average White Band meeting James Brown’s Famous Flames on the snappy title tune, “Step Out” and “SDPM”. Vocalist Audrey Martells works around Senatore’s slick bass line around the horns on the sensuous “The Witness” and the team sprays on Afro Sheen for the boogie down of “Funk 7”. No chaser needed for this one-take it straight.