Even the most diehard of his fans will probably admit that the music and voice of Leonard Cohen is an acquired taste. And it left a bad one in the ears of Rick Estrin, the always sharply dressed blues singer and harmonicist.

That is, until Tom Petty changed his mind. From beyond the grave.

Estrin was listening to an old episode of “Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure” in his car on SiriusXM radio when Petty (who died in 2017) played Cohen’s “Everybody Knows.” The song immediately struck Estrin’s interest. And after some prodding from a bandmate, decided to record his own version.

The tune appears on the new record from Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, The Hits Keep Coming (Alligator Records).

“I was not a fan of Leonard Cohen before and I don’t know that I am now, but I sure like that song!” Estrin laughs over the phone. “All I knew was that song of his ‘Suzanne,’ and I thought it was a pretentious pile of shit! Which just goes to show you what I know!”
The Hits Keep Coming is the band’s fifth studio record since the first under his sole leadership, 2009’s Twisted. He says that the band hasn’t altered their formula much on the new release, save that it’s less guitar-centric than some of their others, and with a lesser emphasis on instrumentals.

It allowed guitarist Kid Andersen, who also produced the album in his California-based Greaseland USA Studio, to focus more on the behind-the-glass knob twiddling.

Lead single “The Circus is Still in Town (The Monkey Song)” is something of a dichotomy in that its upbeat tempo masks the darker nature of the song’s subject: drug addiction. That alone is a bit of a departure for Estrin’s songwriting, but he felt it was an important thing to address on this co-write with his friend Jim Liban.
“On the surface, it’s a happy sounding song, but yes, it’s grim subject matter,” says Estrin, who admits to being an “opiate enthusiast” decades ago before cleaning up.

“I’ll confess, I was a pretty, uh, fun-loving guy back in the day, so it wasn’t hard to access that character in the song. But it’s been a long time since any of that stuff was an issue for me. I’ve had something of a checkered past!”

Other songs on the record run the gamut from blues chuggers and uptempo tunes (“Somewhere Else,” “Sack O’ Kools,” the Muddy Waters cover “Diamonds at Your Feet”), slow, slinky offerings (“Finally Hit the Bottom,” “Learn to Lose,” the title track), jazz blues (“Ain’t Worried About Nothin’”) and even spoken-word blues noir (“Time for Me to Go”).
The San Francisco-born Rick Estrin got his first harmonica at the age of 15, and three years later was good enough to sit in with established bluesmen like Lowell Fulson and Z.Z. Hill. He notes that the roots of the SF scene were more stylistically Texas/Oklahoma and not quite as “gutbucket and low-down” as Chicago and its Mississippi/Arkansas origins. It also had a “slicker” sound.

After relocating to Chicago at 19, he began hanging with fellow harmonica man Jerry Portnoy. Soon, he found himself face-to-face onstage with none other than the Mannish Boy himself, Muddy Waters. He would often invite Estrin to sit in at places like Teresa’s Lounge.

One night at a club, Waters spotted Estrin and beckoned him over to his table. “You outta sight, boy, you got that sound!” Waters told him. “You play like a man!”
Estrin almost ended up with the coveted harmonica spot in Waters’ group formerly held by such legends as Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Carey Bell. But a series of tentative offers, potential competitors and a possible missed phone call to the home of an ex-girlfriend (remember, this was pre-answering machines and cell phones) meant it never happened.

Which Estrin says actually worked out better for him as he was able to become a founding member of Little Charlie and the Nightcats in 1976. Led by guitarist Little Charlie Baty, he and Estrin were the only constants in the group until 2008 when Baty retired and Estrin took the reins. They put out eight studio and one live record. Baty died in 2020.

The current lineup includes Estrin, longtime member Lorenzo Farrell (bass/keyboards) and Kid Andersen (guitar) along with “new guy” Derrick “D’Mar” Martin (drums). Estrin says it’s a “great” version of the group that can play both traditional blues and more modern-sounding tunes.
“This version is also more of a collaborative effort, and there’s a synergy that’s fun for everyone,” he says. “Everyone is enthused about what they’re doing, and we all have respect for each other. That can’t be faked, and it translates in performance. And we don’t just try to replicate the past, that would be diminishing. Because there’s only one Little Charlie.”

As for streaming, the 74-year-old Estrin has mixed feelings. “What can you do, man? That’s what it is. I could get mad. But things change and you have to adapt. How I feel isn’t going to make anything different,” he says.

“My mechanical royalty and BMI airplay checks are lower than they were. But then there’s this SoundExchange, for [streaming royalties]. And that was really helpful during the lockdown when we couldn’t play.”
Finally, there’s one song on The Hits Keep Coming – it actually ends the record – that is a treat for longtime fans of the Nightcats under both Little Charlie and Rick Estrin’s leaderships.

In “Whatever Happened to Dobie Strange?” a mock-serious Andersen invites listeners to take a trip to visit “The Nightcats of the Past” while Estrin sings a litany of questions he’s gotten over the years, including an all-too frequent case of mistaken identity.

“No matter how many times I would introduce Charlie onstage as the guitar player, people would come up to me and assume I was him!” Estrin laughs.

He also mentions that even after he took over the band’s leadership and name, a fan wandered over to Andersen at a show’s merch table and asked about the name change. When Andersen explained that Little Charlie had retired, she responded in earnest “Well, the new guy looks exactly like him!”

Making it funnier is that Dobie Strange is not a made-up moniker: He was actually a former Nightcats drummer who left the group in the mid-‘90s. A chorus of voices offer humorous commentary, including harmonica legend Charley Musselwhite, and drummer Martin doing a dead-on impression of funk bassist Bootsy Collins’ very groovy voice.

So, the next obvious question to Estrin is: Well…what did happen to Dobie Strange?

“He is still alive, and we’re hoping that this may prod him into resurfacing!” Estrin laughs. “And as great of a drummer he was, I don’t think he ever played again. Ten years with us was enough!”

For more information on Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, visit RickEstrin.com