Sauce Boss

100% Pure

2015-05-20

Sauce Boss looks like Adam Savage of Mythbusters if you gave him a chef's hat and a steel guitar. Full of humor and great slide guitar work, "100% Pure" is a solid, swampy blues album. Bill Wharton, the Sauce Boss, is quite the character: plays with a chef's uniform on, cooks gumbo while he performs onstage which he then feeds the audience members, and got in a little trouble with the 'folks at county' for growing happy plants back in the 80's (more on that in Outlaw Blues, the last track of the album). He's also got a heart of gold: he always makes sure to play/cook at a homeless shelter wherever he performs. To see him pour a whole bottle of hot sauce into his gumbo while laughing maniacally should be the stuff of legend. Robert Johnson may talk about meeting the Devil in the crossroads, Bill Wharton wants to put the Devil in your tastebuds. Oh man that gumbo must be awesome! Anyways, this is not a food review, let's get to the music. . .

Most songs are recorded as a one-man band; basically the guitar, a bass drum on one foot and the hi-hat with the other. Zipper Bird has a washboard player which gives a zydeco element to the song, and some chorused 'whaaaaat?!' on Hey Wilbur seem to be the only instances in the album where someone other than Bill is playing along. The laughs on Marquis De Swamp and the woohoos on Peckerwood are uplifting perfection. Chicago Combat Zone talks about his upbringing on the south side of Chicago and how, unfortunately, it seems things have gotten worse ever since. So in conclusion, this album will have you stomping your feet and bobbing your head for its entirety (and craving for some hot cajun cuisine). For more on the Sauce Boss, and his "Gospel of Gumbo," check out the quick links below!

review by Ernesto

Quick Links:

• Sauce Boss
• Planet Gumbo