For  20 years, Altered Five Blues Band has been winning audiences with a swaggering stomp of bruising, barrelhouse grit. According to Downbeat magazine, frontman Jeff Taylor “sings powerfully” and “Jeff Schroedl’s live-wire guitar reaches the high bar of mixed invention and fluidity.” Blues Bytes magazine declares the group features “the funkiest rhythm section outside of Memphis.”

For its fourth album, Charmed & Dangerous, the Milwaukee-based quintet joins forces with Blind Pig Records, one of the world’s premiere blues labels. Produced by multi-Grammy-winner Tom Hambridge, and featuring guests on harmonica and backing vocals, the 13 tracks of original, contemporary blues prove worthy of the recent groundswell of acclaim. The group’s third album, Cryin’ Mercy, reached #3 in the iTunes blues store, hit #1 on the Roots Music Report blues album chart, and won “Best Self-Released CD” at the 2015 International Blues Challenge. The band was also named “Blues Artist of the Year” at the 2014 WAMI Award Show, and was recently asked to contribute a track (“Tightrope”) to a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute album being released in the fall of 2017.
 
Charmed & Dangerous delivers blood-pumping blues with a fiery mix of deft songwriting and simmering musicianship. Taylor’s smoldering baritone howls in the opening title track, and breaths fire-and-brimstone on cuts like “On My List to Quit” and “Three Alarm Desire.” The soul-drenched “Eighth Wonder” and scrapyard shuffle “Mint Condition” showcase A5’s songcraft, while “Cookin’ In Your Kitchen” and “If Your Heart Went Public” prove you can still rattle the rafters with pure, stone-cold slow blues. The album’s third track, “Three Forks,” was inspired by legendary Delta bluesman Robert Johnson and features music, adapted with permission, from the seminal classic “Crossroads.” Hambridge also plays drums on all 13 tracks, adding even more energy and authenticity to the record. ​