Red, White & Blues

by William RuhlmannSteve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, "Blue Lou" Marini, and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin were all members of the all-star band that backed John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in their Blues Brothers incarnation between 1978 and 1980. Here, they reorganized with a few more players, notably singer Larry "T" Thurston, as the Blues Brothers Band. The music (mostly new songs) was in the Blues Brothers' familiar up-tempo R&B style, Elwood Blues made a cameo appearance, and the playing was session-man-hot, but of course it just wasn't the same without Joliet Jake, who had gone to that great roadhouse in the sky ten years before.