From the time I left Muddy Waters’ Band in 1980, I have led my own band. But for the last few years, and in today’s Blues World, I’ve taken the opportunity to work with a flexible gang of players based on the preferences and budget of the person who pays for the show, and of course, who is available.

Blue Mountain Artists can put together a show with me playing solo, in a duo, with a guitar-bass-drums Blues Band, or a revue featuring one or more well-known special guests – the ones I work with most often are Hubert Sumlin, Pintetop Perkins, Carey Bell, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Mookie Brill. These players were on my 2003 album, the Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam in 2003, and were nominated for a 2004 W.C. Handy Award as Blues Band of the Year in 2004. We still work that way, all together or in smaller revues. In addition, we recently have done shows that feature even more choices of legendary artists: James Cotton, Nappy Brown, Reverend Billy Wirtz, Bob Stroger, Ann Rabson, Maria Muldaur, Janiva Magness, and Calvin “Fuzz” Jones. We can be billed under the individual names, as All-Star Blues Revue or as The Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam.

Many of my gigs feature a very talented musician on bass. Though younger than these other players, he supports and adds a lot to our performances, as well as being very impressive on his own:

Tom "Mookie" Brill

Tom “Mookie” Brill was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award for Bass in 2005 and he won the re-named Blues Music Award for it in 2006. He was raised in Brooklyn and has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1977. He plays upright bass whenever possible (depending on travel logistics). He worked in Blues and Rock’n’Roll bands in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina through the ‘80s. From ‘89 to ‘92 Mookie worked in my band, traveling around the world and recording on my second Powerhouse Records album, “Chicago Blues,” and on a song with Chicago Blues legend John Brim on my first Alligator Records album, “Down In The Alley.” He played upright bass and some harp on an album we did together with John Brim, “Ice Cream Man,” which was released on the then-new Tone-Cool Records in ‘93. Mookie is a full-service, sextuple-theat band member, playing upright and electric bass, harp, guitar, drums, and vocals. He is a particularly impressive vocalist in deep Blues and Rockabilly styles. In the ‘90s, Mookie worked with Carey Bell, Hubert Sumlin, and Louisiana Red and with the Extraordinaires and the Rockabilly band, The Belmont Playboys, in North Carolina.