LIL' ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS TO RELEASE SLIDEWAYS ON FEBRUARY 27, 2026

New Song And Video -- Bad All By Myself -- Premieres Today

2026 Slideways Tour Announced

        

 

Lil’ Ed Williams is a slide guitarist extraordinaire…electrifying and raucous. He represents one of the few authentic links to pure Chicago blues.
—The Chicago Tribune

Outrageous, forceful Chicago blues slide-guitar…piping hot energy…Lil’ Ed is a star of the first magnitude.
—DownBeat

Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials don’t just rock the house, they threaten to blow the whole thing down. Muscular, scalding, explosive guitar…incendiary soul played with fiery intensity...a raw-boned tour-de-force, raucously felt and blisteringly articulated.
—Blues Revue 
 

On Friday, February 27, 2026, Blues Hall Of Famers Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials -- led by Chicago slide guitar icon Lil' Ed Williams -- will release Slideways, their 10th Alligator Records release, and perhaps the crowning achievement of their entire career. For nearly 40 years together, Lil’ Ed Williams and The Blues Imperials—bassist (and Ed’s half brother) James “Pookie” Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton—have been delivering gloriously riotous, intensely emotional, wickedly playful Chicago blues to audiences around the world. Lil’ Ed—like his musical forebearers, slide guitar masters J.B. Hutto (Ed’s uncle), Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor—is a giant of the genre. Slideways will be available on CD, blood-red vinyl LP and at all digital service providers. It is available for pre-order here.

Also on February 27, the band will kick off their 2026 Slideways tour with a hometown record release party at historic FitzGerald's Nightclub in Berwyn, Illinois. See full tour dates below.

The first single from the album, the original foot-stomper Bad All By Myself, premieres today, along with a striking new video.

Produced by Williams and Alligator Records founder and president Bruce Iglauer, Slideways is a dynamic, high-energy collection of 13 songs, including 12 written or co-written by Williams. With the band at the absolute height of their powers, Williams’ singing and playing is thrilling and at times hair-raising. The songs—eight featuring the deep blues keyboard playing of Ben Levin (“He’s got that old-time style,” says Williams)—are filled with simple, relatable truths. They feature colorful characters in humorous to harrowing situations, some sinning while grinning, others smiling while crying. From the high-octane opener Bad All By Myself to the feral 13th Street And Trouble to the home wrecking Flirt In The Car Wash Skirt to Lil’ Ed’s heartbreaking and soul-shattering reinvention of Homeless Blues, Slideways is a tour-de-force of old school Chicago blues performed with up-to-the-minute urgency.

Williams says the new album captures the band in all its glory, and Iglauer brought out the best in each member. “Bruce challenged us. He pulled things out of me I didn’t expect, and I’m glad he did. Pookie worked his butt off and played great. Mike always plays something cool. He lays the flavor down the way I like it. And Kelly, he’s a wildman. He makes me stomp my foot even harder than normal.”

Mixing smoking slide guitar boogies and raw-boned shuffles with the deepest soul-burners and heart-wrenching slow blues, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials perform each track with an impassioned sense of wild abandon. Lil' Ed's celebratory slide work, deep blues string bending, fervent vocals and riveting original songs, all powered by The Blues Imperials’ rock-solid, road-tested, telepathic musicianship, are as real and hard-hitting as Chicago blues gets. According to Guitar World, “The band is a snarling boogie-blues machine.” The Boston Globe says Lil’ Ed plays “positively scorching guitar,” and the band delivers “a classic Chicago vibe with an energy that’s timeless.”

With Slideways’ endlessly enjoyable music, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials provide an entry point for new listeners as much as a "welcome home" to long time “Ed Heads” all over the world. After almost four decades together, the band’s authentic, unvarnished blues and their infectious energy, joyful showmanship and masterful performances have been honed to a razor’s edge. Even so, they continue to push each other to greater musical heights. “I love my guys to the point of no return,” adds Lil’ Ed. “They always surprise me.” As for the band’s durability, he says, “What I love is that we’re a family, and families stay together.” 

LIL' ED & THE BLUES IMPERIALS  -- 2026 SLIDEWAYS TOUR

February 27, 2026	FitzGerald's	Berwyn, IL
March 5, 2026	The Dakota	Minneapolis, MN
March 6, 2026	Bernell's	Madison, WI
March 7, 2026	Shank Hall	Milwaukee, WI
March 12, 2026	Natalie's Grandview	Columbus, OH
March 13, 2026	Music Box Supper Club	Cleveland, OH
March 16, 2026	The Village Nightclub	Lancaster, PA
March 17, 2026	Saint Georges Country Store	Saint Georges, DE
March 18, 2026	Hub City Vinyl	Hagerstown, MD
March 19, 2026	The Laundromat	Morristown, NJ
March 20, 2026	Lizzie Rose Music Room	Tuckerton, NJ
March 21, 2026	The Iridium	New York, NY
March 24, 2026	The Music Room	West Yarmouth, MA
March 25, 2026	The Falcon	Marlboro, NY
March 26, 2026	The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center	Old Saybrook, CT
March 27, 2026	The 443 Social Club & Lounge	Syracuse, NY
March 28, 2026	Fanatics Pub	Lima, NY
April 24, 2026	New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival	New Orleans, LA