Grammy Award-winning harmonica virtuoso Sugar Blue is not your typical bluesman. He wasn't raised on a Southern farm or even on the South Side of Chicago - he was raised in Harlem, New York. He didn't grow up with blues all around him - he grew up with the sounds of Billie Holiday and James Brown and all the acts that played the Apollo Theatre. Sugar Blue has used this background to his advantage, though, creating an ultra-modern blues style and sound that is instantly recognizable as his own. And now with his second Alligator release, In Your Eyes (AL 4831), he's on the verge of setting the blues world on its head. The first radio single, She, is a Stonesy blues-rocker featuring a harmonica hook in the tradition of Blue's unmistakable riff on the Rolling Stones' Miss You, while Gucci Gucci Man is a clever and bluesy tale of excess. From the dizzying harmonica solos and soulful vocals to the emergence of Blue as a serious songwriter, In Your Eyes is bursting at the seams with the unique talents of Sugar Blue. With In Your Eyes, Sugar Blue emerges as a singular songwriter as well as a harmonica wizard. Between the haunting, late-night feel of the title track, the horn-driven, Latin-tinged Lip Service And Lies, and the up-to-the minute, socially aware Bottom Line, Sugar takes the harmonica - and the blues - beyond previously recognized limits. With a nod to traditional blues (Bluepine features a harmonica/piano duet with famed Muddy Waters alumni Pinetop Perkins), the sights of the album are firmly set on the future. Minor-key blues, jazz, funk, R&B and straight blues all have a home in Blue's music. If this seems strange, it shouldn't. He cites Miles Davis as a primary influence. "If you define the way you play your instrument only by the players who play your instrument, it limits you," Blue told an interviewer. And if there's one thing Sugar Blue has no time for, it's limitations. Although Blue has played and recorded with musicians ranging from Willie Dixon to Stan Getz to Frank Zappa to Johnny Shines to Bob Dylan, he is perhaps best known for his signature riff and solo on the Rolling Stones' hit Miss You from their Some Girls album.
~ alligator.com

Track List:

01. Gucci Gucci Man [5:39]
02. Bottom Line [4:20]
03. In Your Eyes [6:39]
04. She [2:58]
05. Bluepine [6:13]
06. Lip Service And Lies [6:09]
07. Whirlwind [4:52]
08. Listen Baby [4:35]
09. Love's Sweet Secrets [3:13]
10. Little Red Rooster [6:31]

Personnel:
Backing Vocals - Darnell Rush (tracks: 8, 9), Eibur Stepney Manuel (tracks: 6), Herb Walker (tracks: 2), Jeff Morrow (tracks: 6), Joyce "Peaches" Falson (tracks: 6), Laveeta "Squeaky" Mohannon (tracks: 8, 9), Motoaki Makino (tracks: 2), Oscar Brown III (tracks: 2), Shawn Christopher (tracks: 8, 9)
Bass - Charles Hosch (tracks: 3, 6, 10), Rob Amster (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 7 to 9)
Drums -James Knowles (tracks: 3, 6, 10), Nick Kitzos (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 7 to 9)
Guitar - Herb Walker (tracks: 1 to 3, 7 to 9), Motoaki Makino
Harmonica, Vocals - Sugar Blue
Keyboards - Ken Hale (3) (tracks: 6, 8), Motoaki Makino (tracks: 3), Roosevelt Purifoy (tracks: 2, 10)
Percussion - Alejo Poveva (tracks: 3, 6)
Piano - Pinetop Perkins (tracks: 5)
Saxophone, Flute - Dan Johnson (17) (tracks: 2, 6, 9)
Trombone - Jim Massoth (tracks: 2, 6, 9)
Trumpet - Carey Deadman (tracks: 2, 6, 9), Ed St. Peter (tracks: 2, 6, 9)