The Cash Box Kings worked the Midwest blues circuit -- they're based in Chicago, even if their founding member, Joe Nosek, resides in Wisconsin -- for many years before signing with Alligator Records, the premier modern Chicago blues imprint, in 2017. All those years of steady gigging are apparent on Royal Mint, the group's first set for Alligator. From the moment the record kicks off with "House Party," a rollicking shuffle propelled by dirty guitars and wailing horns, it's evident that this combo can take all the old grooves of '50s and '60s 45s and make them sound fresh, simply by retaining a heavy dose of guitar grit while making the grooves hop and swing. That visceral thrill alone would make Royal Mint a pleasure, but what makes the album sound vital is how Nosek and his vocalist partner, Oscar Wilson, are intent on pushing the past into the present by pairing covers of Jimmy Reed, Amos Milburn, and Robert Johnson with songs about the modern world. Sometimes these tunes are funny -- "If You Got a Jealous Woman Facebook Ain't Your Friend" brings the cheating song into the digital age -- but the pointed satire of the anti-Trump "Build That Wall" ("the unexamined life is where it's at") and the barbed, angry "Blues for Chi-Raq" are proof positive that the blues is a living, breathing thing that can bend with the times. By adding these sharp critiques of the 2010s to a record that celebrates the visceral kick of classic electric blues, the Cash Box Kings wind up with a rocking little record that feels vital in a way few modern blues albums do.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo