Lil’ “A” & The Allnighters have had a name change. They are now Lil A AND THE ALLNIGHTERS. As a writer who has followed this band since their 2010 debut album entitled, Special Project, I found their old name to be particularly annoying. You try putting an apostrophe next to quotation marks followed by an ampersand and then a made-up word that doesn’t get through spell check. None of this would matter if I didn’t give a damn about this band but that is clearly not the case, as they have been referenced many times through the years here in BLUES JUNCTION. 

The new band name is still pronounced the same and more importantly despite some personnel changes they have the same energy, drive and in your face approach to blues music that has endeared them to audiences for the past decade or so. In this respect they are a reflection of their long-time manager and Southern California blues music empresario Art Martel.

While this band is described as keeping the west coast blues alive, some clarification might be in order. This isn’t the west coast blues of Lloyd Glenn or Maxwell Davis for instance, as there isn’t a piano or saxophone anywhere near these recordings. This isn’t the swinging post war sounds of T-Bone Walker or the smooth cocktail blues of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers either for that matter. This band is the embodiment of post-modern late 80’s and 90’s blues revival sounds of SoCal.

That famous blues revival was in full swing everywhere and it swung even harder here in Southern California. Greats like Al Blake, William Clarke, Rod Piazza, Lynwood Slim, Johnny Dyer, James Harman, Lester Butler and others were fronting their own bands and blowing the roofs off the clubs up and down the west coast on any given night of the week. Each player had their own interpretation of the blues language and had their own sound on the harp. 

Those halcyon days of blues in Southern California seem like a distant memory until I hear Alex Woodson aka Lil A (spelled with a big “A”). He cut his teeth in the same SoCal nightspots that I saw these great performers for the first time a few decades ago. I hear those cats in his playing. Yet he, like these greats, has his own sound.

Woodson is a harmonica player from the Piazza school…literally. The famous blues harmonica man took Woodson under his wing the way George “Harmonica” Smith did with Piazza decades before. The band’s sound lies somewhere between the Mighty Flyers and the Red Devils. They have an early 90’s Black Top Records’ house sound with an homage to the late William Clarke.

On Hip Ya they create a sound that is, according to Martel, “exactly what we were going for.” He went on to say much of the ALLNIGHTERS’ sound he attributes to what he describes as the, “aggressive harmonica daring” of their leader, Alex Woodson.

The ALLNIGHTERS twin guitar approach here is handled by a trio of very talented guitar players. They are long time band members Bill Bates and Geoff Gurrula and the newest ALLNIGHTER, Mark Amparan. Each brings their own blues vocabulary to Hip Ya.

The rhythm section consists of long time Southern California blues stalwart Johnny Minguez. He is an in-demand drummer who might be most recognized as a long-time member of the Mighty Mojo Prophets. Brion Munsey handles the bass duties playing both the upright and electric versions of that instrument.

Kudos also go out to the band’s regular bass player Kenny Huff who sat out on most of this album to focus on his production duties. He engineered and mixed the album. He, along with Woodson, co-produced Hip Ya.

The ALLNIGHTERS, which I would like to rename Alex Woodson and the CAPITALS, are the quintessential post Fats Band, Southern California Blues ensemble. When listening to this album I am taken back to a VFW Hall in the San Gabriel Valley or a cocktail lounge inside a bowling alley in San Dimas. I am also taken back to a place where I first discovered the SoCal blues scene back in the early 90’s. Believe me that is a great place to be and I can thank Lil A AND THE ALLNIGHTERS, however you spell their name, for taking me there.

-  David Mac



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