Chicago blues is now also synonymous with guitarist Nick Moss. Though the golden era of Chicago blues is long past with many of its key players deceased or retired, this young Chicagoan stands tallest in the current generation of blues performers that honor the letter and spirit of the great urban African-American music. No less than Jimmy Rogers saw Nick as a prot�g�, a torchbearer, and a colleague. Leading Chicago-style guitarist Buddy Guy sanctions his talent: �Nick Moss is one of the local favorites at my club, Legends.
I always enjoy the way he plays and works hard to please our audience.� Noted Chicago-based music journalist Bill Dahl, never one for gratuitous praise, has raved over Nick�s guitar playing, saying he possesses �mastery of the classic Chicago sound,� while acclaimed blues producer Dick Shurman numbers himself among Nick�s ever-growing legion of admirers, calling his Windy City neighbor �an increasingly centered artist who can rightly be called a master.�
Nick Moss
A musician of consummate skill, Nick fully understands the debt he owes his predecessors and how important it is to carry on tradition in an honorable fashion. �I�m not trying to re-invent the wheel,� he says with characteristic modesty, �or trying to bring things into the new millennia. I�m just playing what was handed down to me and do it justice. I have a lot of respect for the guys who taught it to me�I played with Jimmy Dawkins, I played with Willie Smith, I played with Jimmy Rogers�and in my heart I love [this music] and I don�t feel it has to be changed much.�
Passionate blues fans around the country gravitate to Nick�s playing in live performance and on recordings because of that stylistic link to the Chicago blues past. But Nick�s music also holds enormous appeal for casual fans of blues and even novices. �I�m trying to find that fine line of not compromising the integrity of that classic music,� he says, �and yet still make it a little fresher-sounding and contemporary-sounding where I can get across to the element of the crowd that isn�t hard-core.�
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