J.B. HUTTO’S BOY : Lil’ Ed Learned the Blues at the Feet of a True Master

As the story goes, Lil’ Ed Williams’ big break came in the recording studio at Alligator Records in his hometown of Chicago.

Spotted at a local club by label chief Bruce Iglauer in 1985, Williams and his band, the Blues Imperials, had been invited to tape a few demo songs and had launched into their usual high-voltage, not-a-breath-between-tunes set.

After eight numbers, Iglauer offered them a contract on the spot. And after ripping through 30 songs in three hours with no retakes (preceding bands had finished two songs in two hours, which is still quick), Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials had their first album, “Roughhousin’,” in the can.

Whether or not the tale is, well, slightly romanticized (Iglauer swears it’s all true and claims to have pictures of himself dancing at the soundboard to prove it), the group has gone on to establish itself as a major touring blues band. Orange County can get a look at Lil’ Ed when he brings his duck walkin’, back-floppin’, slide-guitar-playin’ act to the Rhythm Cafe on Monday. For the five-buck admission fee, it might be the blues bargain of the year.

Like many young bloods of the blues, Williams, 37, has drawn on traditions of his family for inspiration. He remembers that there was always smiling and joking going on in the home where he grew up, and that such blues legends as John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters were constantly being played on the phonograph. But no musician had a greater effect on him than his uncle, slide-guitar great J.B. Hutto, who died in 1983.

“When I was 14, Uncle J.B. used to sneak me into the clubs he was playing,” Williams said by phone from Chicago. “I watched every move he made, and he taught me all that I’ve got.”

Sometimes another uncle, Mayfield Hutto, would take a turn on vocals. “We used to call him Lil’ Percy Mayfield,” Williams recalls. “They used to play all night. I learned a lot of blues from them.”

Working at the car wash during the day, playing blues for $6 a night. . . . It may read like a Hollywood script, but it was day-to-day life for Williams and thousands of blues musicians like him working the club circuit in Chicago.

But then came that frenzied night in the studio with Iglauer.

Today, Williams and the band have just released their third album, “What You See Is What You Get,” and are coming through California as part of a national tour. Still, Williams said, he never forgets the past.

“I want to remember, because I still got more dues to pay. My only regret is that Uncle J.B. isn’t here to see it happen for me. But I’m sure he knows and he’s up there somewhere, just smilin’ and playin.’ ”

Who: Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials.

When: Monday, Nov. 30, at 8 p.m.

Where: Rhythm Cafe, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (I-405) Freeway to Harbor Boulevard, head north on Harbor and take the third right, Lake Center Drive.

Wherewithal: $6 to $7.50.

Where to call: (714) 556-2233.