SCHENECTADY-- "Is the Reverand still here?" Big Bill Morganfield asked mischieviously of ecstatic "congregation" Sunday afternoon at the State Street Presbyterian Church.

Morganfield needn't have worried that the Rev. Bob Smith would object to his singing "Dead Ass Broke" in church; after all, Smith had proclaimed "The Blues is God's music," and the near miraculous happened as Morganfield lit up "Broke". The best solo in the song belonged to guitarist George Boone, who learned it literally on the bandstand from fellow Schenectadians in the Willie Pierce Blues Band, Morganfield's band-for-a-day.

As they played, white-haired women jitterbugged at the rear, and the aisles filled with fans of a rainbow richness of races and ages.

It was that kind of day, an unlikely show in an unlikely place, and wonderful in its exultation.

Nobody knows Morganfield, but he's obviously a star anyway, weilding a princely prescence Sunday as he closed the show after Ben Murray and Siobhan Quinn and Ernie Williams and the Wildcats. Son of the late, great Muddy Waters (born McKinley Morganfield), Big Bill Morganfield reached his 40's and had two degrees and a teaching job before he started playing the blues, so he's no child prodigy.

Singing first with Wildcats' percussionist Rocky Petruzelli playing washboard, Morganfield began by playing acoustic guitar on Robert Johnson's primitive "Walkin' Blues"-- the same musical neighborhood where Ben Murray and Siobhan Quinn started the show.

Quinn's soulful R&B singing jelled beautifully with Murray's slashing, bluesy guitar on their fine "Two Rivers" CD; and they replicated the blend to perfection Sunday. Quinn's voice was at times just too big for the church's sound system, as in the high register of John Hiatt's "Feels Like Rain." Things balanced best in the shuffles "Baby Do What You Want Me To Do" and "Samson and Delilah." The later earned an enchore of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind."

Ernie Williams and the Wildcats followed, bursting from subdued spirituals through Ernie's energizing hambone display into a climatic, thrilling "The Lord Will Find a Way." Playing 'unplugged' (acoustic guitars, brushed drums), the four piece Wildcats were on top of their game, but in a quietm contemplative mood until their closing tune, which rocked the church as Ernie exploded in exhuberant whoops and the band roared while he sauntered offstage.

The five piece Willie Pierce Blues Band took over for a driving segment, capped by a menacing "Crosscut Saw" before Big Bill Morganfield took the stage with Petruzelli, then invited Pierce and band onstage with him. On his own, Pierce mixed classics with originals from a new CD, their Chicago-style arrangements bristling with pungent solos and slick, tight grooves, but when Morganfield brought them back, they were obviously energized: He asked for their best and got it.

He led with songs from his "Rising Sun" CD, "I Don't Want To See You Go" and "Cryin' Days," but wound up in his father Muddy Waters' songbag with "Got My Mojo Workin'"-- jumping up and down to the beat, echoing Muddy's jubilant lip-rumble and inspiring the jubilation only real stars can ignite.

-Transcribed from The Daily Gazette, Schenectady NY