“Foot-tapping,
body-swaying blues”

Photo Paul Natkin

Lil’ Ed Willams and his Blues Imperials are planning dinner, musically speaking, for the Center for Performing Arts in Bonita Springs. Just listen to a few of their song titles: Chicken, Biscuits and Gravy and Icicles in My Meatloaf.

“That’s a true story,” Williams said, laughing about the last one. He was nestled in at home in Chicago doing interviews before another gig among his 115 a year. […]

A good story gets Williams’ creative juices going, and that creativity has served him through nine blues albums and tours around the world. The Dec. 8 show is the first venture into Bonita Springs, however, for Williams and his crew’s foot-tapping, body-swaying blues.

They roam a musical landscape that includes original tunes like the sassy “She’s Fine, She’s Mine,” blues ballads and booty-shakers like “Your Love is So Strong,” “I Can’t Have Nothin’ ” and “North Carolina Bound” and covers, perhaps of Albert Collins’ wryly funny “Master Charge” or Rufus Thomas’ “Walking the Dog.”

Williams figured he’ll even put a blues spin on a Christmas tune or two, such as “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” His holiday song, “I’m Your Santa,” which promises that certain someone a frisky Christmas, is bound to be on the list, too.

He’s also likely to cover a tune by his uncle, bluesman J.B. Hutto. A Blues Foundation Hall of Fame member and slide-guitar wizard, Hutto taught Williams about finding your own voice as well as honoring your role models. […]

By Harriet Howard Heithaus, before Lil’Ed & The Blues Imperials’ show this December 8, 2017, at the Center for Performing Arts, in Bonita Beach, Florida. Read the full feature article in the Naples Daily News