Nick Moss and the Fliptops

Sunday December 12th 9pm

The Blues Saloon

2525 NW 10th Street

Tickets $10 available at the door

There’s a ‘Renaissance Man’ revival in the music industry these

days, and Nick Moss has taken advantage of it. Unprecedented

upheaval in the entertainment field has thrown open the doors

of opportunity for artists with vision and courage to take

advantage of it. The release of Nick’s eighth album, Privileged,

is proof he has both.

After seven critically-acclaimed traditional blues albums,

Nick has widened his focus on Privileged in order to absorb

song forms and influences beyond the scope of those heard on

his previous albums. Not every artist is willing to challenge

themselves to grow, explore, and expand. For Nick, that has

become second nature.

Most artists spend years honing their skills in order to shop

themselves around to different labels, hoping someone will

believe enough in their potential to take

a chance on them. Nick didn’t waste time

waiting for someone else to believe in

him. He had the passion, confidence, and

drive to start his own label, Blue Bella

Records, in order to pursue his dream

and artistic vision.

Before Nick forged his own direction,

he spent time learning about the life of a

musician by playing with some of the

greatest bluesmen of all time.

Nick’s schooling began in earnest

when he got the call to play bass with the

great Chicago guitarist Jimmy Dawkins.

Shortly thereafter, he hooked up with the

Legendary Blues Band, featuring Muddy

Waters Blues Band alumnus Willie “Big

Eyes” Smith on drums. “That was one of

my favorite bands,” he recalls. “I still love

Willie. He is like my second father.” The

next deep-blues learning period for Nick, who’d switched

over from bass to a six-string, was in the band of Chicago

blues legend  Jimmy Rogers for three years in the mid-’90s.

From Rogers, he learned all about the special ensemble sound

of authentic Chicago blues, coming to understand the importance of listening closely to and reacting to his fellow players

on the bandstand. “Listen to early Muddy Waters stuff with

Jimmy and Otis Spann and Little Walter,” says Nick of the

original model. “It almost sounds as if they’re playing on top

of each other, but they’re staying out of each other’s way. It

almost sounds like they’re all soloing at the same time.”

With his blues graduate studies completed by the late ’90s,

Moss launched his band, The Flip Tops and Blue Bella

Records. Their first album, First Offense, was followed by Got

a New Plan in 2001 and two years later a third album, Count

Your Blessings. The latter two received W. C. Handy award

nominations, and Count Your Blessings included ace contributions by Nick’s friends Sam Myers, Anson Funderburgh,

Willie Smith, Curtis Salgado and Lynwood Slim. June 2005

saw the release of fourth album Sadie Mae, named after his

beautiful baby daughter. Sadie Mae was nominated for 2006

Blues Music Awards as “Album of the Year” and “Traditional

Blues Album of the Year.”

Those first four studio albums and relentless touring

helped Moss build a devoted audience. That following was so

excited about the music they were hearing in clubs across the

country night after night that they not only encouraged Nick

to release a live album, they helped make arrangements for it.

Live at Chan’s, released in 2006,  was nominated for “Album

of The Year,” “Traditional Blues Album of the Year,” and saw

Moss nominated as “Guitarist of the Year” at the 2007 BMAs.

What made the album so successful? Nick made certain the

night they rolled tape was just like any other night when he

and his band took the stage. “I wanted to

make sure that the CD reflected the spontaneity of our live performances. I’ve been

blessed with an extremely talented band;

each one of us is a multi-instrumentalist

and has no problem switching it up during our shows! We have had nothing but

compliments from our audiences after

they see how the guys and I take turns on

different instruments as we did on this

particular night.”

Moss followed his first live release up

with a double album Play It ’Til Tomorrow. By expanding with a second disc,

the band was able to present another serving of live, loud, and raucous electric blues

as well as showcase their ability to strip

their sound down to the bare, acoustic

essentials. Play It ’Til Tomorrow once again

featured Oshawny on keyboards (he

switched over to bass on four tracks and second guitar on

another) and Hundt on harp and vocals (he also played bass,

rhythm guitar and mandolin on the disc). Special guests

Eddie Taylor, Jr. and Barrelhouse Chuck made their presence

felt too. This impressive double release went on to be named

among the  “Decade’s Best Blues: 25 Great Albums That

Defined the Past 10 Years” in Blues Revue Magazine in 2010.

The acclaim Live at Chan’s garnered convinced everyone

that a sequel was definitely in order—and the sooner, the better. Thus we have Nick and the band’s new CD:  Live At

Chan’s: Combo Platter No. 2, with special guest Lurrie Bell.

The set once again captures what this uncommonly hard-hitting, endlessly versatile crew does best: live and lively Chicago

blues, deeply rooted in postwar tradition with a heady infusion of contemporary energy.

No matter how far he travels, be it geographically or stylistically, the pull of Chicago and his roots there are never far

from his mind. It’s where he started out on his musical journey; each new approach merely marks a stop along the way. H