Eschewing the rock-inflected Texas style favored by so many of their peers, Moss and his band specialize instead in the flowing, intricate lines developed by hometown legends Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, and Howlin’ Wolf. Growing up in this historic blues town, Moss was able to augment his study of blues recordings by gigging with the masters, though at first it was on bass. “My older brother was my first guitar idol,” says Moss. “When I started messing around with his guitar, instead of kicking my ass he went out and bought me a bass so we could play together.” It was as a bassist playing with drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith in the Legendary Blues Band, and with guitarist Jimmy Dawkins’ band, that the young player learned the fine points of the Chicago style. “The main thing I got from Jimmy Dawkins was playing with some kind of fire, or as those guys used to say, ‘Putting some ass into it.’ Playing bass with Willie Smith was the best education in playing the feel of Chicago Blues, learning what Muddy Waters called ‘The lag time.’ There’s a behind-the-beat-feel to the way a lot of Chicago Blues is played,” Moss explains.

It was when the Legendary Blues Band guitarist left that Moss switched instruments. “Even after my brother bought me the bass, I still wanted to play those six strings,” he says. “And occasionally I would play guitar at jams.” For Moss’s next gig he got the call to join a group led by former Muddy Waters Band guitarist Jimmy Rogers. “By that time I was pretty well steeped in traditional Chicago blues, so it was an easy transition for me,” he relates. From Rogers, Moss learned the Windy City style of interlocking parts that can sound like everyone soloing at once while managing to stay out of each other’s way—a product of intense listening by all the musicians involved. Moss has learned his lessons well and has imparted them to his band members, who help him create a fine example of this distinctly American genre.

The guitarist’s favorite ax, a ’68 Fender Jaguar, is unusual in blues circles. His main amp is the more common ’66 Fender Super Reverb. All of Moss’ two-pickup guitars are wired with a push/pull pot, allowing him to have the pickups in or out of phase. Found on early B.B. King records (the first Gibson electrics were often wired out-of-phase at the factory), the sound is more commonly associated with Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green. Moss admits, “It is not the same sound as actually reversing the magnets, but it is close. I like to be able to have the ‘in-phase’ middle position.”

Interestingly, this master of the traditional Chicago style first had his head turned around by purveyors of West Coast swing, such as Junior Watson, Little Charlie, and Hollywood Fats. “I figured out who these guys were listening to, then I went back and listed to Tiny Grimes, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown, and Bill Jennings. Then at one point it hit me: ‘I live in Chicago; I’ve got the sources all around me.’ That’s when I started getting into Muddy, Earl Hooker, and all the other great Chicago players,” he says.

Having assimilated so many blues styles, Moss is an ideal person to articulate the differences. “The West Coast sound is more Uptown to me, and there is more of a swing element to it,” he explains. “The Chicago sound is heavier on the backbeat, a more raw sound, though not quite as raw as the Mississippi Hill country stuff. It came to Chicago first, where it stayed pretty raw, but as it spread to the East and West Coasts it got more of a jazz feel to it.”

But Nick Moss is not an archivist. He adds his own personality and sense of style to the proceedings. “One night I was sitting with Jimmy Rogers in the van, and I put one of his albums in the tape player. I said, ‘Do you want me to play this like you played on this song?’ He stopped the tape, put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘That’s the way it sounded that day in the studio, we never played it the same way twice.’ That’s when I stopped trying to copy records. As long as I am playing the music with the right feel and playing with feeling myself, it doesn’t matter what note or how many notes I play. I am playing Chicago blues my way, while at the same time trying to retain my appreciation for the past and what these guys taught me.”