The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling

The High Cost of Low Living

Alligator Records

In 1993 Nick Moss was a member of The Legendary Blues Band where he learned the old school style from Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. He later moved from bass to lead guitar and spent three years in the Jimmy Rogers band. He formed his own band and received his first Blues Music Award nomination in 2003. Overall Moss has accumulated twenty-one BMA nominations in eight different categories. In 2017 Moss received nominations for “Band of The Year”; “Contemporary Blues Album of The Year” and “Album of The Year”.

Bruce Iglauer states “every once in awhile Alligator is offered an unexpected new album so strong and soulful that I feel compelled to release it…when Nick brought harmonica ace Dennis Gruenling into the band and recorded this album with co-production by Kid Anderson…it only took one listen to convince me”.

Gruenling received personal instruction from both James Cotton and Snooky Pryor. His 2008 album “I Just Keep Lovin’ Him: Tribute to Little Walter” created quite a stir in the blues harp world and featured him alongside Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin and Steve Guyger. In 2017 Gruenling received a Blues Music Award nomination as “Best Instrumentalist – Harmonica”.

“The High Cost of Low Living” is their first recording together and their Alligator debut. The band includes Moss, guitar and vocals; Gruenling, harp and vocals; Taylor Streiff, piano; Nick Fane, bass; and Patrick Seals, drums. Guesting is Jim Pugh, keyboards; Kid Anderson, guitar; and the horn section of Eric Spaulding, tenor sax; and Jack Sanford, baritone sax. The album was recorded in the Chicago suburb of Elgin, Illinois and mixed at Anderson’s Greaseland Studio in San Jose, Ca.

Moss has written eight new songs including the opener “Crazy Mixed Up Baby” which is the first song chosen for airplay. Moss is an emotive vocalist and sings lead on all but two tracks; those written by Gruenling. There are also three covers: Otis Spann’s “Get Your Hands Out of My Pockets”; Santo and Johnny’s “All Night Diner”; and “Rambling On My Mind” written by Robert Johnson but arranged and credited to Boyd Gilmore in 1952.

“The High Cost of Low Living” is already being hailed as a great new contemporary blues recording. This is a must to own.

Richard Ludmerer

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