Billy Hamilton & The Lowriders - Pay Some Money (2016)

Fourteen grooving tracks of funky blues and old-school style R&B–with lyrics that tell stories from the school house to the jail house and the households in between!
Now these guys are good! Based in the Cincinnati/ Dayton, Ohio area, leader Billy Hamilton has a fine voice and plays sharp, tight harmonica, his breaks concentrating on content rather than flash, and he writes some excellent material with pointed and/ or humorous lyrics. The originals are in the majority, though there are also some intriguing borrowings. His band, The Lowriders, is sympathetic and cool, providing a subtle but often driving backdrop often based around Jeff Long's Hammond B-3 or piano. Their influences seem to range from vintage Buddy Guy, Ray Charles and Chuck Berry through Professor Longhair and the boundary leaping organ grooves of the likes of Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff and Brother Jack MacDuff on to the likes of the funky R&B of Lee Dorsey and Robert Parker, the Stax sound and seventies funk. They never stray into self indulgent territory, preferring instead to maintain the groove, and solos are kept short and sharp. Particularly worth noting, as it is such a rarity these days, is the excellent straight-ahead production by Lynn Long, with tasteful guitar solos sometimes reminiscent of Anson Funderburgh. The CD contains many tight, focused, self-written blues/R&B tunes. ––Blues Art Journal/Vienna, Austria

TRACKLIST

1. Pay Some Money
2. One More Day in Prison Blues
3. Fancy Man
4. Don't Waste Your Time
5. It Hurts
6. Fever
7. Big Mama's House Husband
8. Never Gonna Learn (Until You Lose)
9. Bad Man's Babies
10. Donna Rae
11. Something Is Wrong
12. Bar Room Gasoline
13. Use Me
14. No Shame in My Game