01. Lonely Streets (4:44)
02. Born In The Delta (8:07)
03. Check It Out (3:48)
04. Look Like It's Gonna Rain (4:11)
05. Lonesome Whistle Blow (5:32)
06. Someone Like You (4:10)
07. Sittin' Here Thinkin' (5:37)
08. Bad Luck (4:49)
09. Don't Tell Me Your Trouble (4:07)
10. I Can't Stop Lovin You (6:01)
11. Something New (3:24)
12. Someone You Should Know (6:06)

Willie Kent - vocals and bass; 
Haguy F. King - guitar; 
Jacob Dawson - guitar; 
Dave Jefferson - drums; 
Allen Batts - piano and organ; 
Erskine Johnson - piano; 
Willie Henderson, Kenny Anderson, Larry B.J. Weathersby & Bergess Gardner - horns; 
The Gospel Supremez - background vocals on track 12.

Kent, the Chicago blues bassist, was a sideman to Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Louisiana Red, Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater, and Junior Wells, to name a few. Willie is finally getting the recognition this bass legend deserves; W.C. Handy Awards: Best Blues Instrumentalist, Bass 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. Additional awards: Library of Congress Award for Best Folk/Blues album, Living Blues Magazine Award for Best Bassist for seven years and Chicago Music Society Album of the Year. Wow, that’s a lot of accomplishments to a well deserving bluesman.

Comin’ Alive takes listeners down to the Delta to Chicago’s West Side. There are songs that’ll make you want to dance and others a bit gospel. All but songs #1 & 10 are original tunes, written by Willie. --- stlblues.net

Willie Kent has been making albums for many years now, but "Comin' Alive!", his debut for the Blue Chicago label, marks another couple of firsts for the premier bass player. Kent is the first solo artist to be signed to the small, but well-respected label, and it is the first time he has sat in the producer's chair (alongside Twist Turner and guitarist Haguy F. King). ,/

Although generally associated with Chicago--his home for nearly half a century--Kent thinks of himself as a Delta bluesman, and "Comin' Alive!" owes at least as much to Memphis and the south as it does to the windy city. This quickly becomes apparent on the excellent opening rendition of Sterling Plumpp's "Lonely Streets". Kent is in top form on vocals and bass, and Haguy F. King's on guitar sounds uncannily like his namesake Albert. Add a pinch of horns, and the result is something close to a Memphis Soul Stew. Kent further acknowledges his roots on the ensuing autobiographical "Born in the Delta", which features some very neat piano by Allen Batts.

The quality of material barely wavers throughout (Kent wrote 10 of the 12 tracks), and there is enough variety to keep everybody interested. Particular favorites include the soul/funk workout of "Look Like It's Gonna Rain" (the second of four tracks where the horn section get to strut their stuff), the excellent "Bad Luck", and the Gospel-like "Someone You Should Know" which rounds things out in fine style, helped by the harmonizing of the Gospel Supremez (Shirley Johnson, Diane Womack, and Joi Fité).

The Blue Chicago label have struck gold yet again with "Comin' Alive!". This is Willie Kent at his very best, working in tandem with a band he knows and trusts implicitly. There seems little doubt that "Comin' Alive!" is going to be up among the front-runners when they hand out the awards for best album of 2001. ---Gordon Baxter, mnblues.com

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01. That Will Never Do (4:00)
02. Mean Old World (5:57)
03. Mean Mistreatin' Woman (3:24)
04. Going Down Slow (3:59)
05. Can't Get No Grindin (3:00)
06. Troubles, Troubles, Troubles (6:12)
07. Treat My Baby Right (3:16)
08. Reconsider Baby (2:47)
09. Memory Of You (3:52)
10. Come Home (4:44)
11. Somebody Got To Go (2:56)
12. Sloppy Drunk (5:46)
13. As The Years Go Passing By (5:59)

Willie Kent - Bass, Vocals
Willie Davis – Guitar
Carlos Showers 	- Guitar
Ken Barker – Keyboards
Cleo Williams – Drums

The preeminent Chicago blues bassist of the postwar era, Willie Kent was the city's last surviving link to the Mississippi Delta tradition, backing a who's who of immortals including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Junior Parker as well as fronting his own long-running band, the Gents. Born in Inverness, MS, on February 24, 1936, Kent was the product of a sharecropping family, and was enlisted to pick cotton at the age of six. While local musician Dewitt Munson afforded his first exposure to the blues, as a teen he began dialing in Helena, AR's influential radio station KFFA, where the King Biscuit Time broadcast served as his introduction to formative influences including Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Nighthawk. By age 11, Kent was a surreptitious fixture at the Highway 61 club the Harlem Inn, catching acts headlined by Howlin' Wolf and Ike Turner. Two years later, he left home for Memphis, and after a brief tenure at a Florida gas station, he migrated to Chicago at the age of 16. There Kent bought his first guitar, which he loaned to musician Willie Hudson in exchange for lessons. In 1959, he joined Hudson's band Ralph & the Red Tops as a chauffeur, occasionally appearing on-stage as a vocalist. Whenever Hudson's bassist brother showed up for a gig too drunk to perform, Kent was summoned as his replacement, eventually taking over the position for good.

Upon joining Little Milton's band in 1961, Kent's notoriety grew, and he became a steady presence at Kansas City Red's legendary "Blue Monday" parties. Kent was renowned as much for his talent as for his professionalism, a rare commodity in the blues world, and he regularly sat in with greats spanning from Muddy Waters to Little Walter. After leaving Little Milton, he tenured with Arthur Stallworth & the Chicago Playboys as the 1960s came to a close, followed by stints in support of Hip Linkchain and Jimmy Dawkins. After returning from a European tour, Dawkins relinquished his headlining gig at the West Side blues club Ma Bea's Lounge to Kent, who for the first time assembled his own band, Sugar Bear & the Beehives, with guitarist Willie James Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. Ma Bea's would serve as the setting for Kent's debut LP, 1975's live release Ghetto, and remained his home for over six years. In 1982, he returned to sideman duties, joining Eddie Taylor and contributing to his acclaimed 1985 swan song Bad Boy. After Taylor died that Christmas, Kent recruited his guitarist Johnny B. Moore and drummer Tim Taylor to form Willie Kent & the Gents: as their fellow bluesmen adopted an increasingly slick sensibility inspired by commercial R&B, the Gents championed the classic Delta 12-bar tradition, emerging as a favorite of blues purists at home and abroad.

After a series of heart ailments forced Kent to undergo triple bypass surgery in 1989, he spent his recovery examining his life and career, finally abandoning his longtime trucking gig in favor of pursuing music full-time. I'm What You Need, his first solo LP in 14 years, soon followed on the Big Boy label and proved the first in a flurry of releases that next included his Delmark debut, Ain't It Nice, which earned the Library of Congress Award for Best Folk/Blues Album of 1991. Kent also signed to the Austrian label Wolf for a pair of LPs, 1991's King of Chicago's West Side Blues and Live at B.L.U.E.S. in Chicago. With so many new records to his credit, it was inevitable that Kent finally earned the attention of blues fans and critics across the globe, and in 1995, he won the W.C. Handy Award for Best Blues Instrumentalist, Bass. Two years later, he earned the award again, and went on to claim the prize in nine consecutive years. Kent also notched five consecutive Most Outstanding Blues Musician, Bass honors from the magazine Living Blues, and with 1998's Delmark release Make Room for the Blues took home Chicago's Album of the Year prize. In early 2005, Kent was diagnosed with cancer, but continued his busy live schedule in spite of chemotherapy treatments. He lost his battle with the disease on March 2, 2006, just a week past his 70th birthday. --- Jason Ankeny, Rovi

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1.Boogie All Night Long
2.All My Life
3.I'm What You Need			play
4.Treat My Baby Right (instr.)
5.Treat My Baby Right
6.You Told Me Baby
7.Mamma Told Me
8.I'm What You Need (take 2)

Musicians:
Willie Kent - vocals and bass; 
Johnny B. Moore - guitar; 
Willie Davis - guitar; 
Tim Taylor - drums; 
Barrelhouse Chuck - piano.

Willie Kent was born in 1936 in the small town of Inverness, Mississippi, just a hundred miles south of the border with Tennessee, and the blues ran all through his childhood. His first experience singing came in church, where he went "all the time" with his mother and brother. "Blues and gospel come from the same place", he would say later in life. "They're both from the heart". But the blues always called to him. Dewitt Munson, a neighbor wending homeward late nights with a guitar in his hand and a bottle in his pocket, would stop a while at the Kent porch to rest, letting the young Willie hold his guitar while he told stories. Through radio station KFFA’s famous "King Biscuit Time", Willie basked in the sounds of Arthur Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson, and especially Robert Nighthawk. By the time he was eleven, he was regularly slipping out to the Harlem Inn on Highway 61 to hear it all live: Raymond Hill, Jackie Brenston, Howlin’ Wolf, Clayton Love, Ike Turner, Little Milton. He left home at the age of thirteen. In 1952 he arrived in Chicago, where he soon was working all day and listening to music all night. One of his co-workers was cousin to Elmore James - and Willie Kent (still underage) took to following that famous bluesman from club to club, absorbing his music. Each weekend he’d go out looking for blues, and he found it: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, J.B. Lenoir, Johnnie Jones, Eddie "Playboy" Taylor, A.C. Reed, J.B. Hutto, and Earring George Mayweather. His love for the music led him further and further into it. He bought himself a guitar, and in 1959 through guitarist friend Willie Hudson, linked up with the band Ralph and the Red Tops, acting as driver and manager and sometimes joining them onstage to sing. He made a deal with Hudson, letting him use the new guitar in trade for lessons on how to play it. One night’s show was decisive: the band’s bass player arrived too drunk to play, and because the band had already spent the club’s deposit, they couldn’t back out of the gig; so Willie Kent made his debut as a bass player, on the spot. He never looked back. From that point on, his credits as a musician read like a "Who’s Who" of Chicago blues. After the Red Tops, he played bass with several bands around the city and stopped in often for Kansas City Red’s reknowned "Blue Monday" parties. He was increasingly serious about his music and formed a group with guitarists Joe Harper and Joe Spells and singer Little Wolf.

By 1961, he was playing bass behind Little Walter, and by the mid-60’s was sitting in with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Parker. Toward the end of the 60’s, he joined Arthur Stallworth and the Chicago Playboys as their bass player, worked briefly with Hip Linkchain, then played bass behind Jimmy Dawkins. He joined Jimmy Dawkins on his 1971 European tour, but when they returned to the States, their paths diverged: Jimmy Dawkins wanted to keep touring and turned over his regular gig at Ma Bea’s Lounge to Willie Kent, who wanted to stay in Chicago. For the next six years, the Ma Bea’s house band was known as Sugar Bear and the Beehives, headed by Willie Kent (the Sugar Bear himself) with guitarist Willie James Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. In that setting, he set the tone of the club and backed up a stellar guest list including Fenton Robinson, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson, Carey Bell, Buster Benton, Johnny Littlejohn, Casey Jones, Bob Fender, Mighty Joe Young, B.B. Jones, and Jerry Wells. (For a taste of the music, check out the superb 1975 recording Ghetto – Willie Kent and Willie James Lyons live at Ma Bea’s.) Willie Kent had played occasionally with Eddie Taylor’s blues band during the late 70’s, and in 1982 became a regular member of the band, which then included Eddie Taylor on guitar, Willie Kent on bass, Johnny B. Moore on guitar, and Larry and Tim Taylor on drums. His relationship with Eddie Taylor was both a solid friendship and a warm musical partnership (evidenced in Eddie Taylor’s fine recording Bad Boy on Wolf Records).

After the death of Eddie Taylor, Willie Kent devoted his energies to his own band, Willie Kent and the Gents, with Kent on bass and vocals, Tim Taylor on drums, and Jesse Williams and Johnny B. Moore on guitar. And the Gents endured. Over the years, the composition of the group shifted as musicians joined or moved on, but the music remained as clear, powerful and steady as the bass line that held it true: a pure Chicago West Side blues. By the end of his life, Willie Kent was well-known and respected in the blues world, but getting there wasn’t easy. In 1989, a series of heart problems led to life-changing triple bypass surgery. As he healed, he spent time reflecting on blues music, his career, and the future. He gave up his day job and turned his full attention to music. --- bluessearchengine.com

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01. Better Days (5:45)
02. Don't Mess With My Baby (4:20)
03. Thought I Was Lucky (3:52)         play
04. My Baby's Gone (6:22)
05. One More Mile (7:20)
06. Too Hurt To Cry (3:04)              play
07. Everybody Needs Somebody (7:01)
08. I Just Want A Little Bit (3:54)
09. All Your Love (6:11)
10. Chicago Bound (4:21)
11. No Love In Your Heart (4:55)
12. Since I Met You Baby (6:36)

Personnel: 
Willie Kent (vocals); 
Carlos Showers (vocals, guitar); 
Will Davis , Jake Dawson (guitar); 
Hank Ford (saxophone); 
Ken Barker (piano, organ).

When he sings, Willie Kent’s voice blazes out from the heart of the blues. Below the singing, you hear his bass guitar, flawless and rich. Between these two runs the music, a deep, honest blues that flowed from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and remembers everything it learned along the way.

Willie Kent was born in 1936 in the small town of Inverness, Mississippi, just a hundred miles south of the border with Tennessee, and the blues ran all through his childhood. His first experience singing came in church, where he went "all the time" with his mother and brother. "Blues and gospel come from the same place," he would say later in life. "They're both from the heart." But the blues always called to him. Dewitt Munson, a neighbor wending homeward late nights with a guitar in his hand and a bottle in his pocket, would stop a while at the Kent porch to rest, letting the young Willie hold his guitar while he told stories. Through radio station KFFA’s famous "King Biscuit Time", Willie basked in the sounds of Arthur Crudup, Sonny Boy Williamson, and especially Robert Nighthawk. By the time he was eleven, he was regularly slipping out to the Harlem Inn on Highway 61 to hear it all live: Raymond Hill, Jackie Brenston, Howlin’ Wolf, Clayton Love, Ike Turner, Little Milton.

He left home at the age of thirteen. In 1952 he arrived in Chicago, where he soon was working all day and listening to music all night. One of his co-workers was cousin to Elmore James - and Willie Kent (still underage) took to following that famous bluesman from club to club, absorbing his music. Each weekend he’d go out looking for blues, and he found it: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, J.B. Lenoir, Johnnie Jones, Eddie "Playboy" Taylor, A.C. Reed, J.B. Hutto, and Earring George Mayweather. His love for the music led him further and further into it. He bought himself a guitar, and in 1959 through guitarist friend Willie Hudson, linked up with the band Ralph and the Red Tops, acting as driver and manager and sometimes joining them onstage to sing. He made a deal with Hudson, letting him use the new guitar in trade for lessons on how to play it. One night’s show was decisive: the band’s bass player arrived too drunk to play, and because the band had already spent the club’s deposit, they couldn’t back out of the gig; so Willie Kent made his debut as a bass player, on the spot. He never looked back.

From that point on, his credits as a musician read like a "Who’s Who" of Chicago blues. After the Red Tops, he played bass with several bands around the city and stopped in often for Kansas City Red’s reknowned "Blue Monday" parties. He was increasingly serious about his music and formed a group with guitarists Joe Harper and Joe Spells and singer Little Wolf. By 1961, he was playing bass behind Little Walter, and by the mid-60’s was sitting in with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Parker. Toward the end of the 60’s, he joined Arthur Stallworth and the Chicago Playboys as their bass player, worked briefly with Hip Linkchain, then played bass behind Jimmy Dawkins. He joined Jimmy Dawkins on his 1971 European tour, but when they returned to the States, their paths diverged: Dawkins wanted to keep touring and turned over his regular gig at Ma Bea’s Lounge to Willie Kent, who wanted to stay in Chicago. For the next six years, the Ma Bea’s house band was known as Sugar Bear and the Beehives, headed by Willie Kent (the Sugar Bear himself) with guitarist Willie James Lyons and drummer Robert Plunkett. In that setting, he set the tone of the club and backed up a stellar guest list including Fenton Robinson, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson, Carey Bell, Buster Benton, Johnny Littlejohn, Casey Jones, Bob Fender, Mighty Joe Young, B.B. Jones, and Jerry Wells. (For a taste of the music, check out the superb 1975 recording Ghetto – Willie Kent and Willie James Lyons live at Ma Bea’s.)

Willie Kent had played occasionally with Eddie Taylor’s blues band during the late 70’s, and in 1982 became a regular member of the band, which then included Eddie Taylor on guitar, Willie Kent on bass, Johnny B. Moore on guitar, and Larry and Tim Taylor on drums. His relationship with Eddie Taylor was both a solid friendship and a warm musical partnership (evidenced in Eddie Taylor’s fine recording Bad Boy on Wolf Records). After the death of Eddie Taylor, Willie Kent devoted his energies to his own band, Willie Kent and the Gents, with Kent on bass and vocals, Tim Taylor on drums, and Jesse Williams and Johnny B. Moore on guitar. And the Gents endured. Over the years, the composition of the group shifted as musicians joined or moved on, but the music remained as clear, powerful and steady as the bass line that held it true: a pure Chicago West Side blues. By the end of his life, Willie Kent was well-known and respected in the blues world, but getting there wasn’t easy. In 1989, a series of heart problems led to life-changing triple bypass surgery. As he healed, he spent time reflecting on blues music, his career, and the future. He gave up his day job and turned his full attention to music.

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01 - Too Hurt To Cry - 3:51
02 - Going Down The Road - 4:24
03 - A Man And The Blues - 7:42
04 - Willie Mae - 3:15
05 - Blues Train - 4:16
06 - Just Sitting Here Thinking - 4:50
07 - Good Man Feeling Bad - 4:43
08 - This Thing Called Love - 3:25
09 - 911 - 6:22
10 - In Case We Both Are Wrong - 4:39
11 - Night Time Is The Right Time - 5:09
12 - Countdown - 4:42
13 - All Nite Long - 4:15

Personnel: 
Willie Kent (vocals, bass); 
Billy Branch (harmonica); 
Jacob Dawson, Will Davis , Johnny B. Moore (guitar); 
Sonny Seals (tenor saxophone); 
Malachi Thompson (trumpet); 
Steve Berry (trombone); 
Kenny Barker (piano, organ); 
Timothy Taylor (drums).

There's little newness anyone should expect to hear on a contemporary blues record. The only thing that makes them valuable is if the performer has their own notion of the blues and can state it in a distinctive manner. Willie Kent certainly can; his mournful, often powerful vocals are frequently memorable, even when he's mining the reliable formula of heartache and anguish. If his compositions aren't lyrically transcendent, Kent's rendering of the words elevates them. You never tire of hearing him sing, and he makes you feel and believe his messages, even as his backing band plugs in familiar progressions and lines behind him. Indeed, it's only when Kent covers someone else's music that things become less interesting. ---Ron Wynn, Rovi

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