"Lil' Ed" Williams of Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials.

Ed Heads, rejoice! Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials are coming to St. Marys, Ohio on Labor Day weekend.

It's a long way from working in a car wash and splitting the $6 payoff from your first gig four ways in 1975, to traveling the world and playing on the Conan O'Brian TV show, but Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials have taken that trip. Playing the same crowd-rocking blues for 20 years that Hound Dog Taylor and Ed's uncle and mentor J.B. Hutto played in the 1950s Chicago, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials have remained true to their roots, and to their fans.

A lot of that long path was covered in three short hours. When Alligator Records founder Bruce Iglauer brought the band in for a studio test in 1986, he was unprepared for what came next. Never having recorded in a studio before, the band plugged in and performed for Iglauer and the studio staff like they were an audience at a night club, complete with Ed's toe-walking strut and deep back bends. With the tape running, 30 songs were recorded in three hours - without any overdubs or retakes.

Iglauer signed them to a recording contract on the spot. A dozen of the songs were released as Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials' first album, Roughhousin', in September, 1986. The national press erupted over Roughhousin' (The Village Voice wrote, "Roughhousin' just may be the blues album of the year") and Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials suddenly found themselves in demand not just in their familiar Chicago neighborhood clubs but at blues festivals all over the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan.

Lil' Ed Williams was born and raised in Chicago. He and his half-brother James "Pookie" Young grew up playing the blues under the watchful eye of uncle J.B. Hutto, a legendary Chicago bluesman. They first formed the Blues Imperials in 1975 and their first gig was at a club called Big Duke's Blue Flame. Ed & Pookie worked day jobs to pay the bills and played the blues at night in West Side clubs. According to The Chicago Tribune, "Williams represents one of the few remaining authentic links to the raucous but pure Chicago blues."

Lil' Ed handles the slide guitar work and Pookie still lays down the bass line after more than three decades, but Mike Garrett musically covers the rest. His "rhythm" guitar is never far in the background and the occasional solo will jump out and deny the rhythm-guitar label. Drummer Kelly Littleton completes the quartet with a style that's rather frighteningly described as "unpredictable yet bone-crunching."

In 1993, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials toured with Chicago blues legends Koko Taylor, Elvin Bishop, Lonnie Brooks and Katie Webster on the sell-out Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour. The New York Times tour review raved, "Raw-boned, old-fashioned Chicago blues has a new young master - Lil' Ed Williams."

Find out why The Boston Globe calls Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials "The world's #1 houserocking blues band" when they headline the first night of the 2009 Riverside Bluesfest at 9:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 5. If you're not already an Ed Head, you will be then.
 

Discography:
Year	Title	Label
2008	Full Tilt	Alligator Records
2006	Rattleshake	Alligator Records
2002	Heads Up	Alligator Records
1999	Get Wild	Alligator Records
1992	What You See Is What You Get	Alligator Records
1989	Chicken, Gravy & Biscuits	Alligator Records
1986	Roughhousin'	Alligator Records