Chicago Blues Train Tears Through Town

This is what it looked like when Chicago blues guitarist Lurrie Bell blew through town and played a set at Cafe Nine Thursday night.

This is a snippet of what it sounded like. Lurrie Bell was accompanied by his brother Steve Bell, who both onstage and amid the audience drew from a seemingly endless array of harmonicas stashed in a toolbelt around his waist, brandishing each differently keyed harp to unleash bone-piercing, soul-cleansing wails and moans that electrified the room.

Lurrie Bell, who’s 63, anchored the performance with a nonstop hour and a half of straight-ahead electric 12-bar blues. His mouth did the singing. His sharp, clean guitar licks did the talking.

The evening chugged to a close with the brothers inviting Brendan Casey, guitarist of opening-act All Night Boogie Band of Burlington, Vermont, to join in a couple of jams. ​“Kansas City!” a patron requested. So the band played ​“Kansas City,” then concluded with an un-Muddied rendition of ​“Got My Mojo Workin’.” Lurrie Bell was headed next to perform at the Chicago Blues Festival; read about that, and more about him, in this pre-concert article by New Haven Register reporter (and fellow Chicago-blues musician) Mark Zaretsky. Fernando Pinto produced the concert.