Naples, FL The News-Press January 16, 2008

Saint Petersburg (FL) Times February 16, 2008

Newport, Rhode Island Daily News February 28, 2008

"He stirs up the crowd as well as the roux, giving his audience a demonstration of both cooking and guitar skills they'll never forget."
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE (New Orleans)

"Wharton rips into solos in the same class as Billy Gibbons or Ry Cooder. Aficionados and casual blues fans alike should appreciate what the Sauce Boss cooks up."
PERFORMING SONGWRITER MAGAZINE 12/03

Bill Wharton, a.k.a "The Sauce Boss", is a favorite attraction at blues festivals, state fairs, and clubs all over the country for two reasons: He's a wonderful player and singer, and he cooks up a mind-blowing gumbo right on stage, passing out the tasty results at set's end . . . Wharton's slide guitar is always innovative, and his high baritone matches the tunes perfectly. . . However, it could be the eatin' side of things that will permanently hook you into the Sauce Boss's universe . . ."
BLUES REVUE MAGAZINE

"The best bar band I've seen in a long time . . . You know Bill, everybody wants to be me. But I'd like to open a bait shop and be you." JIMMY BUFFETT
"The Sauce Boss does his cookin' on stage,
Stirrin' and a singing for his nightly wage.
Sweating and a frettin' from his head to toe,
Playin' and swayin with the gumbo
Prayin' and buffetin' with the gumbo
From "I Will Play for Gumbo" (1999) by JIMMY BUFFETT

"Talk about a hot show: Bill Wharton brings it-music and gumbo-to a boil and never lets 'em leave hungry . . . the poet laureate of sauce, the sauce boss himself, a gentleman by the name of Bill Wharton, a modern hero of the blues and a visionary . . . he's a gumbo preacher with a slide guitar . . . He and his band don't just perform the blues they cook them, literally . . . "
Bob Shacochis, GENTLEMAN'S QUARTERLY

"Try this trick: Stir, play guitar, taste, adjust heat, guitar again, stir again, sing. Wharton's got gumbo down to a science. Or is it a religion? Wharton doesn't really make gumbo; he plays it into existence summoning the spirit of Lightning Hopkins to share pot space with his own Liquid Summer hot sauce. As an artist, he's borrowed from the recipes of the Chicago blues as well as Julia Child. He takes a guitar, a pot and a burner onto stages of blues festivals and juke joints all over the world."
BRETT ANDERSON, CITY PAPER (D.C.)

"It's an amusing, engaging mixture."
NEW YORK TIMES

"Wharton is not only a fine slide guitarist . . . but serious about the blues in an almost evangelical fashion. He respects its origins as a field hand's survival kit, and looks to ease his audience's tensions and relieve their emotional starvation with a communal meal. Music and food is an old elixir, a participatory, not a spectator event."
WASHINGTON POST

"Bill Wharton is an American original, the kind of citizen that makes us proud to live in this country . . . Wharton and his band play a rich flavor of blues ... making better records each time out."
CMJ NEW MUSIC REPORT

"A very talented slide guitar player, blues hound, Bill Wharton has enjoyed a strong word-of- mouth following. Those in the know, including many blues legends, say that Wharton is one of the most dynamic bluesmen going."
THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE

"Bill Wharton and the Ingredient's CD RECIPES is a highly infectious outing with Bill "The Sauce Boss" as he cooks up a tasty gumbo of high energy rockin' blues. The Chef plays a mean slide, the band sizzles and Kenny Neal spices things up on harmonica."
BLUES ACCESS

"This is no white-boy poseur. Wharton plays it, sings it, and feels it with burning intensity at every show. He lays it all on the line and invites you to meet him up there. The whole show is comic blues church service, with Wharton as the hammy preacher/devil relishing the irony of sanctifying Les bon temps with his sacramental big spoon." TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT

" . . .Bill Wharton has heaped this new platter, which he sells with snake-oil charm, with a foot stomping, full-length blues album and a cookbook, and a travelogue of Bill's favorite road food and a gumbo video, not to mention a history of his Liquid Summer Hot Sauces and an instant Internet link to the Sauce Boss' own Web site for concert listings, a new recipe every month, sound clips and MP3 giveaways. "I love the idea of using this state-of-the-art technology to spread our laid-back, down-home and funky philosophy around the world,' he says with an evil laugh. When the gumbo is finally thick and dark as voodoo, Bill dishes it out, and the crowd takes it like communion. Gumbo, Bill says, is the perfect metaphor for mankind because when you throw everything you've got into the pot and just give it time to come together, then it works. So he serves up his Gospel of the Gumbo to show people that when they come together for good food and good music all the differences between them dissolve."
WEEKLY PLANET (Tampa, FL)

"Bill is one of those Florida-born silver tongued charmers who can not only play guitar and drums but could talk the armor off an armadillo if he tried."
FLORIDA TODAY

AND FROM FRANCE

"He belts out a high energy blues and plays the cooking pot simultaneously. More then a simple attraction, his musical gastronomical spectacle becomes a big family soup while the vapors from his cooking tempts your taste buds, the loudspeakers release quite another spice which is no less delectable."
GUITAR

"The inventor of gastronomical blues-boogie."
ROCK AND FOLK

"His album MIAMI BLUES AND LIQUID SUMMER (Loft records) unveils a gutsy slide playing and a blues voice that is ready to defrost the whole earth... Indispensable to gastronomical music maniacs."
BEST 283

"Bourges, France
The odor of gumbo cooking floats over the first two sets of I-mean business blues...Guitar slung over shoulder, he tends to the steaming pot. Your stomach is getting jealous of your ears..."Gumbo" he'll tell you as told the French here, pouring LIQUID Summer into the brew in the middle of a combined cooking lesson and Robert Johnson tune, is "bouillabaisse made in hell." It takes a certain amount of chutzpa to teach the French how to cook..."
Mike Zweirn, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE