This is the fourteenth release by one of the most charismatic blues bands which can be found today in Chicago. Its name is Mississippi Heat and is led by the outstanding harmonica player Pierre Lacocque who, after some time without releasing an album, comes back to the front line with this impressive work that Pierre wants to dedicate to the memory of Carlton “Carl” Weathersby who sadly passed away in 2024.

One of the main band features is to include great female singers in its line-up so, this time, besides Sheryl Youngblood who is in nine tracks, Pierre introduces three fabulous voices like Danesha Hamilton, Inneta Visor and Danielle Nicole, all of them impressive vocalists who will delight listeners with the wide variety of vocal ranges and the feeling they give to their performing.

Led by Pierre Lacocque on harmonica, who shows his excellent instrument mastery technique in all songs, the album features, not only the usual band musicians like Giles Corey and Billy Flynn on guitars, John Kattke and Johnny Iguana on keyboards, Brian Quinn on bass or Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith on drums, but also a series of Chicago scene outstanding guests who enhance, if possible, the quality of a really brilliant and colorful recording.

Fourteen Pierre Lacocque’s own compositions give a distinctive stamp to the album, which makes Mississippi Heat become a unique band with a personal and dynamic sound, full of chromatic nuances. Each song reveals a different aspect of the personality of this excellent musician called Pierre Lacocque like, for example, the impressive emotional slow blues “Shiverin’ Blues” he devotes to his father’s memory who passed away from Covid, that is sung with an extreme passion by Danielle Nicole, or the fun harmonica duet with Omar Coleman.

Mississippi Heat makes the most genuine and traditional Chicago blues sound become totally actual, communicating a rewarding energy and good vibes that will catch most listeners from the first to the final song.

My advice is to get immediately a copy of the album. I’m sure you’ll thank me.