Review: Mike Wheeler Band – Chicago Blues
Mike Wheeler and his band deliver eight tracks filled with powerful and soulful contemporary Chicago blues
Mike Wheeler Band – Chicago Blues
Format: LP – Digital
Label: Delmark Records
Release date: 2026
Text: Tom Wouters
Chicago guitarist and vocalist Mike Wheeler has produced an album full of contemporary Chicago blues, aptly titled ‘Chicago Blues’. The eight-track album features Wheeler on guitar and vocals, backed by his band (Larry Williams on bass and vocals, Brian James on keyboards and Cleo Cole on drums).
The album starts of with the exciting, soulful Turn Up!!, featuring a horn section behind Wheeler’s guitar. More of the same is Here I Am featuring Brian James on organ. This is followed by the funky Yeah! And the mid-tempo title song, Chicago Blues, with a tremendous harp solo by Omar Coleman closes up side A of the vinyl album with four songs full of powerful and soulful contemporary Chicago Blues.
Side B continues in the same way with the burner of the album, the heavy blues rock of Brand New Cadillac, a song that perfectly suits Wheeler’s power guitar. The slow blues of A Blind Man Can See proves that Wheeler is not only a powerful guitar player but also a powerful singer.
The Percy Mayfield-cover Serves Me Right To Suffer is as soulful as its original version and features a beautiful piano solo by Brian James. And Little Milton’s That’s What Love Will Make You Do gets an identical treatment, closing up a tremendous contemporary Chicago Blues album by Mike Wheeler and his band.
Side A:
01. Turn Up!! – 6:26
02. Here I Am – 6:20
03. Yeah! – 3:45
04. Chicago Blues – 5:00
Side B:
05. Brand New Cadillac – 4:24
06. A Blind Man Can See – 6:47
07. Serves Me Right To Suffer – 6:40
08. That’s What Love Will Make You Do – 4:22
Website: https://www.mikewheelerband.com/
Read also:
Want to discover more from Mike Wheeler and related artists? Click on the titles below to read earlier articles on Bluestown Music.
Mike Wheeler – Serves Me Right To Suffer
Mike Wheeler and the Delmark All-Star Band perform the song that also appears on ‘Chicago Blues’.
Demetria Taylor – Doin’ What I’m Supposed To Do
Mike Wheeler Band supports Demetria Taylor on this 2022 Delmark release.
Dave Specter – Six String Soul – 30 Years On Delmark
This double album looks back on guitarist Dave Specter’s long association with Delmark Records.