Little Charlie & the Nightcats is an American four-piece electric blues/swing revival combo, consisting currently of guitarist Kid Andersen, harmonicist/lead vocalist Rick Estrin, bassist Lorenzo Farrell and drummer J. Hansen.
Sacramento-based blues, swing and jump masters Little Charlie & The Nightcats have much in common with their feline counterparts. They take great (musical) leaps and always land on their feet, they’re constantly on the prowl (gigging all over the world), and, with all of the various styles of music they play, they seem to have many lives. (Alligator Records)
Little Charlie Baty & the Nightcats
Charlie Baty studied mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, when in 1976 he formed the group Little Charlie & the Nightcats with Rick Estrin. The band’s music is based primarily on Chicago blues, but it also includes elements of many other styles, such as early rock and roll, soul, surf music, swing, jump blues, and western swing. The group’s debut album, All the Way Crazy, was released in 1987, the next one – Disturbing the Peace – in 1988. These recordings helped the group strengthen their position in the blues scene, thanks to which they began to tour extensively. They performed, among others at the longest existing blues festival in the United States, the San Francisco Blues Festival (in 1980 and 1982), at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, or at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle.
On the 1993 album “Night Vision” they were played by guitarist Joe Louis Walker, who also produced the album. Estrin’s song “My Next Ex-Wife” from this album won the W.C. Handy for the best song of the year.
Albums
1987: All the Way Crazy Alligator,
1988: Disturbing the Peace Alligator,
1991: Captured Live [Live] Alligator,
1993: Night VisionAlligator,
1995: Straight Up! Alligator,
1998: Shadow of the Blues Alligator,
2002: That’s Big Alligator,
2005: Nine Lives Alligator.
