This fun and soulful recording was recorded "live in the studio" over a period of two days, with minimal overdubs following. The spontaneous approach paid off, as the CD received rave reviews world-wide, leading to the dynamic duo performing at the prestigious Porretta Soul Festival in Italy and the Blues & Folk Festival in Colombia. (The CD's backing band became the King Louie Organ Trio, which recorded a critically acclaimed CD of its own in 2019.) Below are some "Rock Me Baby" review excerpts:

"The jazz and blues merger by B-3 player Louis "King Louie" Pain and singer LaRhonda Steele is neither predictable nor routine. Pain's tight, expert activity on the console comes out of Jimmy Smith, yet sounds fresh through the expressive qualities of his dapper swing. Steele has shaped a style that relies on an expansive, creative range sparked with a brazen sultriness." --Frank-John Hadley, Downbeat, January, 2015 (4-star review)

"Steele is a very impressive vocalist, blessed with a big, soulful voice…impressive sax work by Renato Caranto…and while I’m at it, big hand for King Louie, who comps and solos on the Hammond B-3 impressively throughout…a very nice set played and sung by a bunch of top quality pros." —Phil Wight, Blues & Rhythm: the Gospel Truth (UK), December, 2015

“Wonderfully authentic...The whole thing swings in the way that the very best soul-jazz always did…LaRhonda sings with pride and passion and belief and commitment. Qualities that can’t be faked. They’re spontaneous and that’s the way this whole album was crafted…LaRhonda says that, 'Music heals the player as well as the listener’; there’s plenty of healing here!” —Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk (UK), November 13, 2015

First recording together by this Portland, Oregon based pair featuring Louis Pain’s impressive Hammond B-3 organ playing and LaRhonda Steele’s big soulful voice. This is a superbly crafted album made by top class musicians who are prepared to give each enough space to create something special, and they have achieved that here. --Alan Pearce, Blues Matters (UK), March, 2016

“From the first time you listen to...'Rock Me Baby,' there is a funky good soul moving throughout that will make your toes curl in ecstasy.” --Greg Johnson, Cascade Blues Association President, Blues Notes, November 2015

"LaRhonda Steele's vocal tone sometimes evokes Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, or Nina Simone...King Louis is the king of the Hammond B-3."
--Blues & Co [France], March 2016

"What a wonderful band! …Louie need not shy away from a comparison with Jack McDuff or Jimmy Smith, and he has LaRhonda Steele at his side, a congenial vocalist who sings with masterful poise and a rich alto…Everyone involved shines, both as sensitive accompanists as well as imaginative soloists. Everything is right here…This album is essential for all fans of Hammond Sounds!" —Amy Zapf, BluesNews [Germany], March 2016

"The soulful collection, Steele's first since surviving breast cancer, is a proud, powerful celebration of life.” --David Greenwald, The Oregonian, July, 2016

Rock Me Baby pulls the delta through an urban cheesecloth, propelled from the B-3 of Louis "King Louie" Pain. Fronting Pain's band is vocalist LaRhonda Steele, who tears through Willie Dixon’s "Twenty Nine Ways" before turning the funk up in the Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing." Pain's organ is at once tart and compact and huge and expansive. The title cut is the straight blues of B.B. King delivered with a big sound and a slow, sure momentum that grinds as it should. Steele steps up and belts a soulful, "Phenomenal Woman" (as she also does on "You Make Me Feel like a Natural Woman”), while recalling the 60s with an energetic "I Love You More Today Than Yesterday." It is in these songs that Steele establishes herself. Pain proves the capable band leader, providing Steele all that she needed to make her point. --C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz, March 2017