Nick Moss Band

Born on December 15, 1969, in Chicago, Nick Moss initially gravitated toward athletics until kidney surgery ended those ambitions and redirected him toward the blues. During his teenage years he took up the bass, spending a couple of seasons behind Buddy Scott before moving to Jimmy Dawkins’ ensemble. In the early 1990s he entered Willie “Big Eyes” Smith’s Legendary Blues Band, agreeing to switch to guitar, and he appeared on the group’s final release, the 1993 album Money Talks. Three years alongside Jimmy Rogers followed, after which Moss launched Nick Moss & the Flip Tops.

The band’s debut, First Offense, surfaced on his Blue Bella imprint in 1998. Momentum built with 2001’s Got a New Plan, the first of four straight W.C. Handy-nominated records. Amid relentless road work and occasional guest spots beside Big Bill Morganfield, Bill Lupkin, and Gary Hundt, Moss issued Count Your Blessings in 2003, Sadie Mae in 2005, and Live at Chan's in 2006. Following 2007’s Play It 'til Tomorrow, he retired the Flip Tops name and, in 2009, rebranded the unit the Nick Moss Band.

Its inaugural effort, Privileged, arrived in 2010. Core membership stabilized around guitarist-vocalist Michael Ledbetter and drummer Patrick Seals even as other players rotated through the lineup. Recognition expanded after 2011’s Here I Am earned a Blues Music Award nomination for Rock Blues Album, and 2014’s Time Ain't Free widened the audience further. Live & Luscious appeared in 2015 and From the Root to the Fruit in 2016. The first Alligator Records collaboration with harpist Dennis Gruenling, 2018’s The High Cost of Low Living, preceded Moss’s selection as Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year at the 2019 Blues Music Awards. The same partnership yielded 2019’s Lucky Guy before the pair reconvened for 2023’s Get Your Back Into It!.