Hosting superb blues on Saturday

Nick Moss Band, Dennis Gruenling set to perform at the Hartford venue

HARTFORD — Nick Moss has always been one badass Chicago blues guitar player — and his Nick Moss Band has long been one badass Chicago band.

But now?

With New Jersey blues harp monster Dennis Gruenling touring with them in support of their latest Alligator release, “The High Cost of Low Living” by the Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling. Sometimes they’re just scary good. This is not hyperbole. Go buy or download the album and give it a listen.

Then get your butt up to Hartford on Saturday and go see them at Black-Eyed Sally’s.

Trust me on this, blues fans. Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $12 at the door. Sally’s is at 350 Asylum St. For information, call 860-278-7427 or visit blackeyedsallys.com.

Moss, who is a killer guitar player, a strong vocalist and a fine songwriter, is still considered by some to be one of the young bucks on the Chicago scene. But he’s now a 30-year veteran of that rough-

and-tumble scene who long ago paid his dues gigging in West and South side blues clubs with some of Chicago’s brightest blues beacons.

Originally a bass player, Moss got his first big professional break playing bass with West Side Chicago guitarist Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins. He toured with the late, longtime Muddy Waters drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and the Legendary Blues Band.

It was at Smith’s behest that Moss switched over to guitar, woodshedding and playing every jam session he could in order to get up to snuff.

It was then the great Jimmy Rogers — best known for his work with Muddy Waters, but the author of a bonafide blues classic in “Walking By Myself” — hired Moss to join his touring band, and Rodgers became his mentor.

Moss formed his own band in 1997 and released the first of his 12 solo albums a year later on his own independent Blue Bella label. He has received 22 Blues Music

Award nominations since then.

Meanwhile, Gruenling was honing his own, unique style out in New Jersey, where he also made a name doing harp microphone repair and customization.

While he grew up in Jersey, he was always strongly influence by Chicago masters, including the four on the Alligator recording “Harp Attack!” — James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell and Billy Branch — which he first heard as a teen.

Gruenling was inspired by the likes of Cotton, Little Walter and George “Harmonica” Smith, as well as by saxophonists, including Lester Young and Red Prysock.

Moss and Gruenling had known each other for 20 years — and played together a number of times — when they decided in 2016 to team up. That came after Moss and his band backed Gruenling over several days at the Chicago Blues Festival and later on the Legendary Blues Cruise.

For their latest release, recorded at Rancho de Rhythm in Elgin, Illinois, Moss wrote eight originals and Gruenling wrote two.

Sven Erik Hagen / Courtesy of Stewart Entertainment Chicago blues guitarist Nick Moss and his Nick Moss Band featuring New Jersey blues harp player Dennis Gruenling are headed to Hartford.