Bio written by Marc Lipkin

“An incendiary brew…fiery fretwork and wailing harmonica…soulful, playful and exuberant.” –Living Blues

“Superb…Nick Moss is one of the best existing purveyors of Chicago blues. Dennis Gruenling wails expertly on harp.” –Blues Music Magazine

“Foot-stomping, classic Chicago blues with clever lyrics and great harp. You won’t
be disappointed.” –Blues & Rhythm (UK)

 

Since first forming The Nick Moss Band Featuring Dennis Gruenling in 2016, master blues guitarist Nick Moss and world-class harmonica virtuoso Dennis Gruenling have become torchbearers for traditional electric blues. But rather than repeating what’s come before, the band’s high-energy take on old-school Chicago, Texas, and West Coast sounds is completely their own. With their new Alligator Records album (their third for the label), Get Your Back Into It!, Chicago native Moss and New Jersey native Gruenling—together with Rodrigo Mantovani on bass, Taylor Streiff on keyboards and Pierce Downer on drums—deliver a deeply rooted, timeless blue-collar blues album.

AllMusic says the band, winner of the 2020 Blues Music Award for Blues Band Of The Year, “makes the case for the vitality of old-fashioned Chicago electric blues in the 21st century.” They are among the world’s very best old-school blues ensembles, with each musician expertly playing off the others. “We are a rare breed as far as how authentic we like to keep the music,” says Moss. The guitarist proudly represents the city of Chicago as one of the few bluesmen working today to have learned his craft firsthand, directly from many of the genre’s original creators.

Get Your Back Into It! was produced by Moss and Mantovani and contains fourteen original songs: twelve by Moss and two by Gruenling. Guests include saxophonist “Sax” Gordon Beadle and, on Out Of The Woods, organist “Brother” John Kattke. The album is inspired by the electrifying blues sounds of the 1940s through 1960s and is performed with taste, restraint, sly humor and pure joy. The stylistically distinct songs—including three wild instrumentals that simply dare you to stay seated—are all connected by Moss’ and Gruenling’s shared musical vision. “We like to push ourselves out of our comfort zone,” Moss says of the songs and performances on the new album, “and I feel like we accomplished that.”

From the life lessons espoused in The Bait In The Snare, Losing Ground and Choose Wisely to the hard blues of Aurelie and Living In Heartache to the lighthearted ode to the band’s Brazilian bass player, It Shocks Me Out, Moss makes clear, in addition to his unparalleled guitar work and soulful singing voice, he is also an award-winning songwriter with the rare Willie Dixon-like ability to write and sing the blues’ honest truth.