“Do we have any dancers in the house?” Always the most dapper man in the room, Nat Bolden steps down off the low stage to start the dance floor moving. “I’m 94 years old,” he lets it be known, “And I can still shake it down.” It’s true. He’s strutting a cool step, luring a pair of ladies — freshly hatched young things in their mid-30s — to come join him as he and the band work a tough groove on “Wall To Wall (Back To Back)” — practically a brand new hit from only just about 1985 or so. Satisfied that he’s got the dancers on their feet, he grabs the tip jar to go work the tables.
Nat Bolden dresses like a grown-ass man, in razor-sharp pin-stripe suits and jewelry enough to make a pawn shop jealous — although he’s sport-casual tonight in a red cardigan, a ball-cap, and a rodeo belt buckle the size of a dinner plate. Nat Bolden sings like a man, too — which basically means begging the woman to either forgive you, let you please come back home, or else maybe give you a little bit of the sweet thing of yours.
Nat Bolden may be the best dang 94-year-old singer in contemporary blues, and, for that matter, in R&B, too. You haven’t heard about him, but…
