I knew the Uptown Rhythm Kings from having seen them several times with my main squeeze Priscilla Grano at the Twist & Shout in Bethesda, Maryland. She and I love to jitterbug and the Kings were definitely the best jitterbug dance band around D.C. at that time – the late 1980’s through the early 1990’s.
In late 1989, Marc Gretschel, owner of the Twist & Shout called me up and said the Uptown Rhythm Kings had recorded an album and wanted Ripsaw to release it. We arranged for Marc to come to my apartment with Eric “Shoutin’” Sheridan, the band’s front main, and Rusty Bogart, the band’s guitarist. The meeting went well and Ripsaw released the “Oooh-Wow!” album about six months later.
The album (Ripsaw 222) won the Washington Area Music Association’s 1990 Blues Recording of the Year award and was well received everywhere. The band toured the East Coast from Atlanta to Portland, Maine and out into the Midwest in support of it.
Toward the end of the short-lived “swing” revival in the late 1990’s Slimstyle Records licensed the title track “Oooh-Wow!” for its “Swing This, Baby! III” CD (63985-78079-2; 2000) and chose the recording as its opening cut.
“Open Up The Back Door” –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Z3pnTqEfk
“Oooh-Wow!” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ0LgTLaXJU
“No Use Knockin'” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8rBOsYvSM
“Honey Baby”- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJkQPH9hF2g
What They Say About The Uptown Rhythm Kings’ “Oooh-Wow!” (Ripsaw 222)
“There isn’t a cat in this group that couldn’t fill the shoes of the toughest R&B musicians of the Golden Age …”
Goldmine
“Led by the energetic vocals of Eric Sheridan … the Kings establish themselves as masters of the [R&B] genre with their debut album. … The playing is forceful, swinging and full-bodied, … I consider [Eric Sheridan] one of the hopes for the future of this type of blues.”
Blues Access
“These grooves will keep you boppin’ and jumpin’. … Kick back the tables ‘n chairs and rack ‘em back!”
Sound Choice
“What a rip-snorting, hip-shaking, bebop-a-rebopping good record … A dozen songs that demand you get up and not simply dance but swing to their rolling, strolling sound.”
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)
“If you like your house-rockin’ sweaty and genuine …, then you’re in fine company with the Uptown Rhythm Kings.”
LaX (La Crosse, Wisc.)
“These Ripsaw recording artists … play the bejesus out of classic R&B … One of the best ‘jump blues’ horn bands since Roomful of Blues.”
Twin City Reader (Minneapolis, Minn.)
“Oooh-Wow! Shrieks with finger-snappin’ syncopation. It’s rugged and tight … This LP gives out heat.”
Independent Press (Lancaster, Penn.)
“This is party music … The arrangements pack the requisite jump-band wallop.”
The Washington Post
“Foot-bopping, finger snapping, and back cranking music … Well produced, it is good and hard beboppin rock and roll …”
The Insider (Arlington, Va.)
“The party record of the year.”
Maryland Musician
