Local bluesman Papa King Cole is a real trooper. Even though he was in a semi rollover the night before from which he escaped relatively unscathed, the New Year’s Eve show went on at the Slice, Dec. 31.

Understandably, King played the show sitting down, but still managed to kill it, singing the blues in his gravelly voice, passing most solo duties to keyboardist Earl McAuley. Doug Freeman played groovy bass.

 They eased into the evening with one of my favourite King originals “Beale Street  Blues,” which King began solo before being joined by Freeman on bass.

 He followed it up with a solid set of original and traditional blues songs including another one of my favourite “Sugar Babe.”

He brought out the slide for a couple more Delta blues numbers. I enjoyed  “Going Down to memphis,” and “Mellow Down Easy.”