Review: 'That's What I'm Talkin' About' by Sean Chambers

Sean Chambers

By Mike O’Cull

Acclaimed Florida blues/rock guitarist, vocalist, and bandleader Sean Chambers pays tribute to his friend and mentor Hubert Sumlin on his new album That’s What I’m Talkin About. Out July 9, 2021 on Quarto Valley Records, the record contains ten songs Chambers regularly performed during his more than four years backing up Sumlin beginning in the late 90s and one Chambers original. Hubert Sumlin was, of course, Howlin’ Wolf’s lead guitarist during his golden era and one of the architects of Chicago blues. The album features appearances from lauded keyboardists Bruce Katz and John Ginty.

Chambers tracked the set in March of 2020, just before the Covid-19 lockdown began at Showplace Studios in Dover, New Jersey with studio owner, the late Ben Elliott handling the engineering and production tasks. “This album is a tribute to my mentor, and friend, the late great Hubert Sumlin,” Chambers says. “Back in 1998, I got a call asking if my band and I would be interested in backing up Hubert at ‘Blues Stock’ in Memphis. It was a magical night for me, and the chemistry between us and Hubert worked really well. After that show, Hubert asked if we would become his full-time group. My band and I continued to play and tour with Hubert for over four years. I look back on that time with Hubert as my college education in the blues.”

Chambers is refreshingly humble but has become a musician of no small reputation, himself. Britain’s Guitarist Magazine called Chambers “one of the top 50 blues guitarists of the last century” and that description fits him well. He’s a blistering guitar slinger, a confident vocalist, and a songwriter steeped in American roots music. That’s What I’m Talkin About is Chambers’s eighth album as a leader and his first for Quarto Valley Records. Like Sumlin and Wolf, Chambers has a deep talent running through him and is right now creating a timeless body of work. His previous two albums, are Trouble & Whiskey and Welcome To My Blues.

Chambers and his band, which includes Antar Goodwin on bass,  Andrei Koribanics on drums, and  Bruce Katz and John Ginty on Hammond B3 and other keyboards, start their set with the instrumental “Chunky,” a Sumlin original. It’s a funky, body-moving track that Chambers attacks with a distorted, tremolo-soaked tone that’ll perk your ears right up. Katz also delivers his own goods, contributing a hot organ solo that compliments Chambers perfectly. “Rockin Daddy” is a song Hubert wrote with Wolf that builds on their “Killing Floor” groove but Chambers easily makes this piece of blues history his own. He gives it a fresh shot of energy and a subtle funkiness that makes this venerated standard come to life all over again and tops it with some of his most intense guitar licks on the record.

“Taildragger” is another Wolf classic and a terrifyingly powerful slow blues. Chambers turns it into a clinic on how to play the most lowdown, dirty blues possible without losing any emotion or being forced to resort to cliches. His guitar tone and playing rise to the level the entire world aspires to and he makes it feel completely off the cuff. We all recognize brilliance when we encounter it and you’ll find a lot of it here.

“Hubert’s Song” is the lone Chambers original on the record but it’s a winner. It’s a rocked-up song of gratitude to Sumlin and recounts some of the adventures the two guitarists shared during their time together. Chambers’ love and respect for Sumlin are genuine and true and you’d like to think that Hubert is looking down on his protégé and smiling. Every beat of That’s What I’m Talkin About is an absolute gas but be sure to spin “Hidden Charms,” “Louise,” and Wolf’s iconic “Sitting On Top Of The World.” To hear Chambers unleash his big-league chops and understanding of the blues as an act of respect towards one of the genre’s all-time best is to be reminded of why we all love this music so much. Once you start listening, you’ll never stop.

Watch “Hidden Charms”