Vinyl Vault — The Siegel Schwall Band, “953 West”

We’ll have a little bit of the blues on the next Vinyl Vault when we feature “953 West” from Chicago blues band The Siegel Schwall Band. The album was released in 1973 on Wooden Nickle Records.

Co-leader Corky Siegel is widely regarded as one of the best blues harmonica players on the scene and this album showcases his playing throughout. He also played piano, sang several songs, and wrote many of them as well. Guitarist/vocalist Jim Schwall, who passed away in 2022, also wrote several songs including the classic “I Think It Was the Wine.” Rollow Radford on bass and Sheldon Ira Plotkin on drums rounded out the band.

The band’s approach to the album was mostly acoustic and generally low key, but with a sophisticated sense of humor epitomized by that “wine” song as well as “Just Another Song About the Country Sung by a City Boy,” among others.

Check out The Siegel Schwall Band with Geoff Anderson on the next Vinyl Vault on Tuesday, March 19 at 8:30 p.m. on KUVO JAZZ.

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