Australian born, Chicago based bluesman Michael Charles  returned to the Slice, Thursday, April 27 for another marathon session of the blues.

 Charles and his tight trio drummer Ryder Olle and bassist Luke Gill barely stopped to take a breath, playing  Charles take on a variety of blues classics and  his own originals for a chattering audience of a couple dozen who stopped what they were doing to cheer.

 They were well into a monster set that began around 8:30 by the time arrived and looked about ready to play until dawn , as long as the audience held out.

 He is touring  his latest single— a great bluesy cover of Glen Campbell’s “ Wichita Lineman,” but I must have missed it.

 Charles preferred to let his guitars do the talking, barely saying a word to the audience.

  The band barely took a beat in between  songs leading to a blessed , bountiful night of blues music.

  I arrived in the middle of a laid back jam on “ After Midnight.” Charles sang  in his unique, nasally tenor and played soulful, licks BB King would have been proud of.

He sang in harmony with some of his leads like classic bluesmen used to back in the day.

“ Time’s Drifting Away” referenced King’s “ The Thrill is Gone.”

“ Step by Step” was another soulful jam. His band was a tight as could be, keeping step with solos and tempo changes, segueing seamlessly between songs.

“Cocaine,” was another J J Cale highlight as Charles traded is orange hues Stratocaster for and acoustic guitar and gave his band a breather as he played  blues classic “ Before You Accuse Me.”

The band returned  as he traded the acoustic for a black Stratocaster and belt out one of my favourite Charles originals “ MC Shuffle.”

 He played a couple more highlight  that were more straight ahead rock and roll, but I didn’t catch the titles.

He was back to the classics with his own take on “ Big Boss Man,” which was reminiscent of ‘Memphis,  Tennessee.’

 I started walking after “Keep on Walking,” and called it a night after midnight during another highlight  I think was called “ In Love with You.”

— by Richard Amery,L.A. Beat Editor