Mike Morgan and the Crawl featuring Lee McBee
BB's Lawnside BBQ
August 20- 21, 1999

Review by Paul "El Dormido" Taylor

BB's Lawnside BBQ welcomes Mike Morgan & the Crawl featuring Lee McBee for a 2 night stand August 20- 21, 9:30 PM to 1:00 AM. Last October they were in town to help Lindsay and Jo Shannon celebrate BB's 8th anniversary. Well, they absolutely tore the place up in a most satisfying way.

Mike Morgan plays an intense, Texas style guitar. He would build tension to a fever pitch, winding it tight, then loose it with the whole band joining in. He walked the table tops, serenaded the bar and visited the listeners on the front porch. Lee McBee is every bit the passionate singer and harp player to match Mike Morgan. His singing is from the gut and through the heart. His harp is the full blown chest sound the fills a room like a railroad engine keening in the night.

Lee is a Lawrence, KS, resident and has quite a history at BB's over the years where he hosted a weekly jam. Anybody and everybody, from national names on tour to your favorite local musicians, joined in with Lee and his own band, the Passions. You can still find tapes floating around of those days. Lee is much beloved among the KC Blues community, as a musician and a favored son.

Mike, Lee and the Crawl are touring in support of their latest Black Top CD, "I Like the Way You Work" (Black Top CD BT-1154). The title cut features Lee's swaggering, sensual vocal and Mike's blistering guitar. I can just picture Lee's thin lips forming the song, twisting around the words giving them that hipsters inflection while Mike takes aim with his guitar and rips off an incendiary lead.

Listening to "One of a Kind", the 2nd cut, brings back that raucous October night when Lee was dripping sweat, pulling at his tie, filling the room with sound while he was singing to his wife at a front table. "What Do That Mean" features Mike Morgan's in close guitar laying down a simmering groove, then cutting a lead that circles around itself in tightening spirals.

These guys are in the upper echelon of touring national acts. They bring it with passion, integrity, authenticity and style. Its hard to imagine the roadhouse remaining earthbound when Mike Morgan, Lee McBee and the Crawl get together with BB's crowd. This is definitely a hot pick for August!

--Paul "El Dormido" Taylor