Black Toppin

Though a blindfold test might make you guess that *Black Toppin\'* came out of mid-20th-century Chicago, you\'d have only the city correct. While The Cash Box Kings are deeply rooted in the blues legacy of the Windy City, they\'re very much a 21st-century phenomenon. Drummer Kenny Smith learned a lot of what he knows from his father (Willie \"Big Eyes\" Smith, famed for backing Muddy Waters), while the band\'s elder statesman, singer Oscar Wilson, has the hulking stage presence of vintage Howlin\' Wolf. Though The Cash Box Kings breathe new life into the Willie Dixon–penned, Little Water–popularized shuffle \"Too Late\" and the blues standard \"Walkin\' Blues,\" the bulk of *Black Toppin\'* features original tunes that prove there\'s still a place for the classic Chicago sound in modern repertoire. And when the Kings close out the album with a bluesy take on The Velvet Underground\'s rocking \"Run Run Run,\" they show they\'re working with a vision of the blues that\'s entirely their own.