The title of the new Rick Estrin and the Nightcats album “The Hits Keep Coming” doesn’t refer to hit singles but the body blows delivered by a lifetime of playing the blues. The latest album has their trademark good humor though, and has the same type of charisma that has distinguished them since the stared recording in 1987.
As on the title track, all is not what it may seem on a lot of the songs including one about a monkey in a circus that is actually a harrowing tale of drug addiction.
Estrin was once considered by Muddy Waters to be the harp player in his band and they pay tribute to him with a version of one of his classics, a rare cover song by Estrin and the Nighcats.
The band has always had an eclectic combination of jump blues, r & b, rockabilly, jazz and even funk—as they close the album with a Bootsy Collins inspired story song. There nothing usual about "The Hits Keep Coming" by Rick Estrin and the Nightcats other than it is, as usual, another great album.