The enjoyable, indeed delicious way to tell the Chicago Blue Revue apart from many similar Chicago blues combos is to follow the members to dinner on a typical evening. The Chicago Blue Revue is based out of Italy. Unlike the Chicago Blues Council, the Chicago Blues Reunion, the Chicago Blues All Stars, ad infinitum, this band gets to sit down and eat in places where the cheese and tomato sauce toppings have not arrived in vats carried by a truck from Kentucky. Chicago blues is superficially a quite easy to assemble musical style, providing in even its weakest representation some thrills for dancers as well as possible chills in the recognition of a classic song such as Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me." In the course of this five-song shortie sampler, the Chicago Blue Revue come across as versatile and surprising, both elements no doubt bolstered by the presence of a variety of additional vocalists and instrumentalists. The wisdom of listening to an Italian blues band when box sets of Muddy Waters might be shelved close by can be debated, the argument on the former side being the discovery of unusual elements and approaches that manage somehow to be both typical and alien to the style in question. Waters creates musical and lyrical kicks with his own at times bizarre pronunciation of words; likewise the vocals of Piero Ferretti renders the title of "40 Cups of Coffee" nearly incomprehensible, an effect that would liven up any R&B performance, let alone one in which the lips of potential participants may be actually dripping powerful espresso. The recording sound and the fabulous effects in the mix at times never fail to give the band a real wallop. One lead guitar entrance can only be compared to the moment in a porno film when John Holmes pulls down his fly, a comment that will hopefully be forgiven by the Vatican. Even what seems like a weak vocal at the outset of the cover of Janis Joplin's "Move Over" develops its own flair as the band arrangement spreads out like an antipasto tray around singer Caterina Vichi. This CD was originally created in the late '90s; the Chicago Blue Revue remains active in the ensuing decade. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
