| The Real Deal | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Smokey Wilson |
| Cover: | The Real Deal (Smokey Wilson album).jpg |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Studio: | Sunnyside |
| Genre: | Blues |
| Label: | Bullesye Blues[1] |
| Producer: | Ron Levy |
| Prev Title: | Smoke n' Fire |
| Prev Year: | 1993 |
| Next Title: | The Man from Mars |
| Next Year: | 1997 |
The Real Deal is an album by the American musician Smokey Wilson, released in 1995.[2] [3] Wilson supported the album with a North American tour.[4] It was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award for best traditional blues album.[5]
The album was produced by Ron Levy. It includes covers of Eddie Taylor's "Bad Boy" and Muddy Waters's "Feel Like Going Home".[4] Wilson wrote the remaining nine songs; he was primarily influenced by the styles of Mississippi blues musicians.[6] Preston Shannon played rhythm guitar on The Real Deal.
The Chicago Tribune wrote that "Wilson brings a gruff, slashing Mississippi-bred attack to his uncompromising brand of contemporary blues."[7] The Age stated: "Fronting a sturdy, rhythm section, Wilson brandishes a guitar that eases from West Coast panache to stinging, Mississippi Delta grit."[8]
The Anchorage Daily News determined that, "at their best, his songs achieve a slow, coruscating effect enlivened by bright, sparsely picked notes on his guitar."[9] The Boston Herald opined that the album's acoustic tracks "positively reek of the Mississippi juke joints in which the Los Angeles-based Wilson learned his trade from the masters."[10]
AllMusic deemed the album "electric juke-joint nirvana." MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide praised the "joyous, defiant" "Not Pickin' Your Cotton".