If you’re a blues or R&B fan, it’s likely that you’ve heard Katie Webster’s swampy boogie-woogie without knowing it. There she is playing piano and singing along with Otis Redding on In Person at the Whisky A Go Go. There she is hammering the keys for Lightnin’ Slim. There she is on Slim Harpo singles from the late ’50s. Webster’s story is like 20 Feet from Stardom in miniature: Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, she was always on the periphery, just out of the heat of the spotlight, supporting stars as they hit the big time.

By 1988 Webster had signed to the premier blues label Alligator Records and readied what would become her biggest LP: The Swamp Boogie Queen. She vamps, she slaps, she stomps, and she smiles through ten songs that are impossible to not jam along to.