man what a great boogie!
 
dig the walking bass line, and the horn samples hit just right.
 
this mix sounds muddy to me, especially the vocals.
 
it's just a lack of high end clarity,
the louder you play it the better,
but it's still got some 'haze' across the high end
 
nice arrangement,
and i dig the guitar solo just as it is on the 2nd version.
 
 

Larry,
 
Nice work and fun song.   Just listened to your re-mixed post (not the original version)    Everything sounds in its' place in the mix and you did a good job with the horn arrangement (very believable).   I think the track could use some M/S EQ to remove some of the low end from the sides and keep bass, kick, focused in the center,  that might add a bit more clarity to some of the parts.   Outstanding work though, really liked it a lot.
 

Regards

daryl1968, dcumpian, Starise, batsbrew, markno999 and everyone before whom I've already thanked:

Thank you all (again) so much for listening and especially for taking the time to help me get this into shape. As I have mixed it I have relied heavily on your expertise and suggestions and I believe what I have now is way better for your advice. I don't expect to burn any more of your time on this one, but I have posted a "final" mix here (as if I'm not going to tweak it again some day - I already have plans...) if anyone would like to see where it stands now.
 
Now I have time to get back to watching all 40 Christmas movies on Netflix before the holiday season runs out.

Well that's a real toe-tapper, love it!

You're gonna hate - I prefer the first mix to the final mix. :D It's fatter, more bass and generally louder.
I love the vocals, great rock and roll sound. The drums neeeedddd to be real though. For this kind of track, you need a real drummer. Love the guitaring though. 

jamesg1213 -  Thanks!
burgerproduction - Well, yeah. The number one quality I need in a drummer is the ability to keep perfect time. Second is the ability to put some personality in the beat. In 50 years I've played with maybe two drummers I could really count on to do those things, on the road, night after night, cover after boring cover, sometimes with not enough sleep, often -- shall we say? -- a little compromised mentally. I used to say I would be the last guy on the bandstand working with a human on drums. 😎 If I could find decent work I could call one of those guys and pay him to play on my tracks. But these days it's hard enough to get any kind of gig, even if you're willing to demean yourself all the way down to doing a "tribute band," and forget about guys my age with no hits to their names trying to do original music. When you're 20, ambitious and hopeful, everybody will work for free for a while, but in time the idealism wears off and BOOM -- you're working with MIDI drums. All this is to say I'm not using MIDI drums because I prefer them, but because I don't have another option.
 
At least they do keep perfect time...

Larry, I totally understand. Don't get me wrong. But I do feel the drums could be 'humanized' a bit more.
My old BFD had a great option for humanizing the drums (varying the hit velocity/ occasionally playing a rim shot etc..) the results can sound quite convincing, more authentic. Some drum programs these days sound too souless, which is great for modern pop, but terrible for old fashioned rock and roll.
Your track sounds rock solid, I just feel the drum sound lets it down a bit, that's all.
If you have a bit of dosh to throw at some projects, you can hire a drummer on-line.  There are guys who will play to your wav track and then send you the stems.  I personally have never used them because I don't have much money to throw at my hobby, but if you want to, they are available. 
Sorry if I ruffled your feathers man. Didn't mean to.

burgerproduction
Larry, I totally understand. Don't get me wrong. But I do feel the drums could be 'humanized' a bit more.
My old BFD had a great option for humanizing the drums (varying the hit velocity/ occasionally playing a rim shot etc..) the results can sound quite convincing, more authentic. Some drum programs these days sound too soulless, which is great for modern pop, but terrible for old fashioned rock and roll.
Your track sounds rock solid, I just feel the drum sound lets it down a bit, that's all.
If you have a bit of dosh to throw at some projects, you can hire a drummer on-line.  There are guys who will play to your wav track and then send you the stems.  I personally have never used them because I don't have much money to throw at my hobby, but if you want to, they are available. 
Sorry if I ruffled your feathers man. Didn't mean to.

...And I don't mean to show you my ruffled feathers. Sorry! I admit I haven't explored all the possibilities of "humanizing" my drum tracks, and I intend to look more carefully at randomizing velocities and timings in the future, but I just don't have a way to use real drummers these days -- no connections, no money. No offense taken.
 
Very early on in my musical career we were all amateurs and I slowly came to the realizations that a.) timing was critical and b.) the drummers I was playing with (friends and beginners like me) were not rhythmically solid. But you go on the road with the band you have, not the band you wish you had, so I had to put up with it. I lived through the era of bad-sounding drum machines, and I used them, but only to keep the live drummer in line.😉 Around the turn of the century I started digital recording on my own, and what a relief to hear a steady drum track!
 
But you're right: I need to find ways to improve my drum tracks. It never ends, does it?

PS: Please let me know if you have any specific ideas on how to do this, and thanks! Here's my formal request.

Larry Jones
 
It never ends, does it?

No, it never does.  Every time I think my track is where I want it, someone points something out and I go back to the drawing board.  In fact, I've just pulled out a load of sessions from 2015 today because I have some new tools that I think would improve the sound.
One advantage of using MIDI drums is that you can play about with lots of different drum VSTs without too much hassle. I've got BFD (the first edition which had really high definition sample hits and great humanizing tools), Session Drummer 1 & 2 (each has its own sound, so worth playing with) Addictive Drums (cool but sometimes too clean and precise for my liking).
What I sometimes like doing is using two or three drum VSTs in the same mix. Try replacing the individual drums with others that don't come in the preset styles. I've found AD is great for mixing kit parts. I love using the mallets with jazz patterns and the Cajon and wood block with rock beats.
Another avenue to explore is the Drum Replacer - Take the drums you've got and bounce down each drum/cymbal to indiviual wav tracks then run them through Drum Replacer and mess around with the sound. You can then layer this on the original track to give more ummph.
Just some ideas.