Michael Lee Ammons and The Water Street Hot Shots: Press

Michael Lee Ammons and The Water Street Hot Shots have a great repertoire of classic tunes from the blues, hokum, string band, and jug band traditions, plus some solid originals. What I like about them is their strong vocals and collective groove. They sound like a real band, not just a collection of individual talents, though there's plenty of the latter to appreciate as well. Their CD "This Will Bring You Back" makes me want to visit Sheboygan!

David Evans
Memphis, Tennessee

Michael Lee Ammons and The Water Street Hot Shots: THIS WILL BRING YOU BACK, Perkatone 201

An appealing performer with a keen awareness of early blues styles, Michael Lee Ammons leads an old-fashioned revivalist and jug band out of the seeemingly unlikely locale of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. But it's not so unlikely afterall: As Ammons' liner notes point out, many Southern blues recordings of the 1920's, including those by Charley Patton and Son House, were actually waxed at Paramount's studio in nearby Grafton, Wisconsin, in a wooden structure one historian described as "probably the most secluded recording studio in the country."
Ammons' love of history permeates this release and brings the music to life in a way that, at its best, goes past mere nostalgia. The title track, originally performed by the Memphis Jug Band, is one of the disc's lovliest moments. With Rich Higdon handling jug duties and Alan "Doc" Moc playing a 1914 banjo-mandolin, the song radiates a distinctly Midwestern sincerity and sweetness while staying true to its Southern origins. In true jug band tradition, Higdon also enlivens the album with occcasional contributions on kazoo and washboard.
Ammons uses several acoustic guitars, including a 1937 Gibson and two different Nationals. The latter guitars, initally developed in the pre-electric age to be heard over the noise of crowded barrooms, employ built-in metal cones to amplify the strings. the resulting sound is rich, full bodied, and wodrously pure and vivid.
Though some tracks are more enoyable than others (a version of Skip James' "Special Rider Blues," for example, doesn't quite work, and a few others sound somewhat strained), the finest of them create a good-time atmosphere that pulses with life. This enjoyable recording unites Ammons and his revivalist cohorts through the simple joy found in making and sharing good music.

CD Review

This Will Bring You Back is the first official CD release from Michael Lee Ammons and the Water Street Hot Shots. This Sheboygan, Wisconsin based blues string/jug band has been working for a number of years in clubs and festivals all over the state. Fans of the band will be more than satisfied with this long-awaited recording.
The Hot Shots' approach to the classic blues of the 1920s and ’30s is reverent yet fun. The band really succeeds in presenting acoustic blues as contemporary, living music rather than museum pieces. The inclusion of a few recent original pieces by Ammons, Pat Kennedy (the popular Bean Grinder Blues) and Madison native, Catfish Stephenson helps to establish the Hot Shots as a first-rate creative outfit firmly connected to tradition.
The majority of the performances on This Will Bring You Back draw from many of the familiar, classic, guitar-based blues performers such as Skip James, Robert Johnson and Son House. Blues string band tunes from groups like the Dallas String Band and the Mississippi Mud Steppers might not be as familiar to the casual listener but it is on these numbers with the fiddle and mandolin featured that the Hot Shots make themselves distinct. This once-popular approach to the blues has not been as common among the current practitioners of old-time blues. The full string band sound really adds to the appeal of the Hot Shots and hopefully the group’s obvious love for the music will attract many new fans into the wonderful world of old-time blues.
I highly recommend this CD to the listener with even a passing interest in classic blues. Even better, seek these guys out at one of their live performances. You’ll be glad you did.

This is one of those CDs you hate to take out of the player. A great marriage of blues, early string band music, ragtime, jugband & country, these guys can pick a groove and hold it down. In the early days of recording black & white musicians readily shared musical influences across racial lines. This music has it's roots in that time and the music of people like the Memphis Jug Band, The Mississippi Sheiks, Skip James & the Delmore Brothers. Leader Michael Lee Ammons grew up just a mile away from the Paramont Records studio in Grafton, Wisconsin where so many great blues artists recorded and seems to have gotten this music by osmosis. His excellent guitar work on National Resophonics plus a variety of vintage guitars anchors a band that includes fiddle, mandolin, bass, & an assortment of jugs, washboards, & kazoos. The band plays with accuracy & enthusiasm and the music is so infectuous you'll have a hard time sitting still.