Detroit Blues legend Johnnie Bassett has it all. Great guitar licks, smooth and salty vocals and witty original songs. A storied history with more dues paying than a Teamster's local. Johnnie Bassett's the real deal and at age 62, he's just hitting his prime.

Get ready for a high octane fun ride as Bassett revs up his Cadillac Blues. A local hero in Detroit for decades, who's also well-known in the Seattle area, Bassett's ready to hit the highway with Cadillac Blues. He's itching for a taste of the national stardom that's so long and so unfairly eluded him.

Consider Mr. Bassett's credentials. Johnnie's played guitar for Big Joe Turner, Tina Turner, Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, John Lee Hooker and Little Willie John. He appeared on Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' very first batch of recordings, including the 1960 smash hit "Shop Around." Bassett also taught a young Jimi Hendrix some blues tricks while living in Seattle later in the '60s. As lead guitarist for Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, Bassett backed countless artists on the important pre-Motown label, Fortune Records. That's his axe on regional hits by Nolan Strong and the Diablos; Andre Williams and the Don Juans; and the Royal Jokers. Jumping forward several decades, Bassett recorded with Chicago Pete & The Detroiters in 1987 and cut several indie label and European CDs with an earlier version of his Blues Insurgents, including a set taped at the Montreau-Detroit Jazz Festival.

He's never been happier than with the music you'll hear on Cadillac Blues. "This is the best band I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot," Bassett proudly told the Grand Rapids Press.

Blues fans will agree with Bassett's assessment the minute they hear such hip, swingin' tunes as "Dog House Is My Home," "Raise The Roof, Raise The Rent," and the tender "Memories Of Your Perfume." Bassett's an original and his voice and guitar are both filled with personality.

The Blues Insurgents combo is clearly the hottest thing going in Motor City roots music right now. Critics and fans lapped up their earlier tracks on Cannonball Record's Blues Across America - The Detroit Scene (including the delightful, "I'm A Bassett Hound Baby"), but that compilation was just a teaser, and appetizer, a little taste of the big banquet that's Cadillac Blues.

A few words about Bassett's comrades are in order. Versatile, baby-faced organ maestro Chris Codish is a Hammond B-3 wizard-in-the-making, a twenty-something world beater with some interesting credits to say the least. Codish has toured the nation with Indiana blues stalwart Larry McCray, but he's also been heard on albums by CBS hard rockers Sponge and Sub Pop Records street diva Thornetta Davis. Now that's range.

Drummer/co-leader/spiritual adviser R.J. Spangler has 20+ years of music making in his resume, including work with the cream of Detroit's jazz scene (James Carter, Geri Allen, Marcus Belgrave, Wendel Harrison and the great Roy Brooks, under whom he studied) plus tons of on-stage experience with a "Who's Who" of blues and R&B (Earl King, Pinetop Perkins, Eddie Bo, Eddie Floyd, Martha & The Vandellas, The Drifters, Sir Mack Rice, Johnny Adams ,Cannonball artist Alberta Adams, etc.). Yet Mr. Spangler also considers the Blues Insurgents the greatest thing he's ever done in music. "We share the same conceptions of dynamics and rhythm when we play," says Spangler. "When it's time to be quiet, we can be quiet. When it's time to get loud, we get loud. That opens us up to a variety of ranges of emotion."

Bassett agrees, telling Michigan reporter Rich Berry, "If you play quiet, you'll make people listen. Anyone can play loud. When you play soft, there is a soulfulness and you achieve a reaction from the audience. I like to get audiences to pay attention. Playing soft will pull people in to listen and then I'll bring it back to another level to get them dancing." Bassett neatly mixes the subtle and the raucous on Cadillac Blues - he's a teaser and a pleaser. Listen to his guitar cajole, plead and tell its lonely story on "Broke In Pieces." It's a monstrous bit of blues playing - all feeling, no flash - on a tune worthy of the great Percy Mayfield.

And by the way, Bassett knows quite a bit about having a "Cadillac Blues" and a "Cadillac Baby." Among his many offstage jobs (cab dispatcher, office products salesman, emergency vehicle driver), Bassett logged some quality time selling Cadillacs! But these days, the Motor City's hippest senior citizen is far too busy making music all over the world to be cutting anybody deals on fancy cars. Bassett's in the driver's seat at last.