Aside from the obvious consideration that Bigman is contemporary music with prominent r&b touches, the particular bin you'll find it in is "party blues." That means there's a lot of sexual content (as there is in the bulk of blues), but it doesn't mean there's a lot of metaphor (as there is in the bulk of blues). The closest Bigllou Johnson gets to that is "horizontal dance," though he isn't above playing sly tricks on the listener (see below).

Johnson is a Chicago bluesman who lists his influences, surprisingly to me unless you can't do blues in the Windy City without a nod in that direction, as Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon and Joe Williams. I presume the last of these is the uptown jazz-blues artist who sang in Count Basie's band, not the downhome Mississippi guitarist Big Joe Williams, though Wolf and Dixon were not all that distant from the Mississippi roots from which Johnson seems far removed.

In any event, Johnson's voice ought to be recognizable to anyone who has -- as who hasn't? -- watched a sufficient mass of television commercials. Among his other talents is as a voice-over performer. His throat emits a deep, rolling sound, possibly the aural equivalent of a rocky road on a summer afternoon, that -- as soon as it's pointed out -- listeners are almost certain to grasp they've heard more than a few times.

He fronts a superior band that manages to accommodate the occasional pleasant surprise, including the presence of zydeco accordionist Anthony Dopsie. Johnson demonstrates his songwriting skills -- notably more melodically various than many of his colleagues -- and he masters the sound of sexual humor and braggadocio, sometimes slipped in when you don't quite realize what you're hearing. If you listen attentively enough to the opening cut, "Lightnin' Strikes," you may find that "lightnin'" is not the first of the two words the r&b chorus is singing behind Johnson. Unless, of course, I'm crazy, which is always possible.

I have no doubt that Johnson intends this recording to be a soundtrack for specific moods and occasions, perhaps with alcohol, chemical, and/or physical stimulants in the mix. This is blues -- the music -- without much blues -- the mood -- in it.