Full Tiltisn't just an album title to diminutive slide guitar slinger Lil' Ed Williams. It's the only way he plays -- even on this CD's slow double entendre blues "Check My Baby's Oil," where Lil' Ed's guitar maintains its serrated keen as his Blues Imperials ply a gentle groove under their boss's most restrained warm-clay crooning. This disc also marks Ed and his backing trio's 20th year updating the slide-driven sound Hound Dog Taylor, Elmore James, Robert Nighthawk, and Ed's uncle J.B. Hutto defined in Chicago's fertile '50s and '60s blues scene. Williams assimilates his influences' finest qualities.  He sings with the howling wildness of James and Hutto, which swaps the urban sophistication of the R&B classic "First I Look at the Purse" for a dirty juke joint patina. The James and Nighthawk inspired melodies of Ed's slide on the heartbreak ballad "Life Got in the Way" have the slow ebb of falling teardrops. And when Ed tackles Taylor's traditional set-ender "Take Five" his speed and precise intonation, also drawn from Nighthawk and James, allow him to execute a slew of delirious, whinnying, moaning slide effects without upending the song. Track-to-track Full Tilt is raw, deeply rooted, and unremittingly entertaining.-- Ted Drozdowski