High Steppin'

High Steppin' arrives on the heels of Blues Music Award and Grammy nominations for Blinddog Smokin' — nominations they received by collaborating with Bobby Rush on his 2014 album Decisions. High Steppin' provides the Southern California-based group an opportunity to showcase what they can do on their own, and this 2015 album does just that, illustrating that this is a thoroughly modern blues band. Blinddog Smokin' are by no means revivalists. By many measures, the band is proudly modern, spending as much time working a nasty funk groove as they do a blues shuffle, but what makes the band unique is how they blend a bit of post-Parliament sleaze with gritty juke joint blues. This is especially true on High Steppin', which spends a little bit of time lingering on both sounds but usually finds a vibrant common ground between soul, blues, and funk, indulging in tight, loose rhythms that are punctuated by horn stabs, chanted choruses, and liquid lead guitar. Some of this pushes at the edge of good taste but that's the fun of High Steppin': it doesn't treat blues or soul (or funk) as a tradition, but as a low-down good time.