Leadbelly, The Legend of
Leadbelly (Empire Musicwerks, 2006)
Watermelon Slim & the Workers, The Wheel Man (Northern Blues,
2007)
David Gogo, Skeleton Key (Cordova Bay, 2006)
Otis Taylor, Definition of a Circle (Telarc, 2007)
Some folks seem to think that all blues sounds the same. Can you believe it? All blues sounds the same? Phooey! Here we have four albums, recorded between 1939 and, well, probably just a few months ago. And do they sound the same? Not at all. Each one takes those blues essentials, three chords, 12 bars, and a good man feelin' bad and turns it into something completely his own. It's amazing, really.
First of all there's Leadbelly. Huddie Ledbetter, born in 1885, imprisoned for murder in 1918. A 30-year sentence commuted in 1925 after he wrote a song to the governor asking for leniency. His recordings have been issued and reissued many times over the years. The batch found on The Legend of Leadbelly stem from a series of recording sessions in New York City, from April '39 until April '44. The sound is not bad, considering. A bit compressed perhaps, but that's due to the scratches and hisses being removed. His big songs are here: "Black Betty" and "On a Monday" are squeezed into a medley along with "Looky, Looky Yonder." "Bourgeois Blues," "John Hardy," "Goodnight Irene" and "Bring Me a Little Water, Sylvie" are all present in versions you'd recognize, and there are some more obscure tunes as well. This is the "King of the 12-string guitar" and his proficiency on that big box is evident. His full voice rings out, too. Sonny Terry accompanies Ledbetter on "How Long", adding his fine mouth harp; and Josh White joins in on "I've Got a Pretty Flower." All in all, a nice selection for the beginning blues collector.
Watermelon Slim is the most traditional of the other bluesmen represented here, but he's miles from Leadbelly's acoustic sound. More closely linked to the Chicago electric blues of Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf, he churns out his electric boogie with skill and a feeling that comes from his own burdens. Bill Homans is his name, but he's just Watermelon Slim. Jerry Wexler, producer extraordinaire, says of Slim, "I haven't heard anything that arresting in years!" And I'd have to agree. The band is hot, and Slim can sing like crazy. He sounds a bit like Muddy, with slightly better enunciation. He plays the harp brilliantly, and he's no slouch on the slide guitar, either. Geez! He co-produced it, too (with Chris Wick) and wrote most of the tunes. Ronnie "Mack" McMullen plays electric guitar, Michael Newberry is the drummer, Cliff Belcher the bassist and Ike Lamb adds electric guitar. Magic Slim duets on the title track and the whole thing is just the best blues album that has come along in months! Timely lyrics, edgy guitar, honkin' harp and solid rhythms, and it's all wrapped in a marvelous watermelon-coloured package designed by A Man Called Wrycraft. Look out for this one!
Next up is David Gogo, whose fifth CD is called Skeleton Key. And it shows where the blues can go and where it can come from. Who would think a bluesman would come from Nanaimo, British Columbia? Gogo did. And his first axe was a ukulele he received at the tender age of 4. Self-produced (along with Rick Salt), Skeleton Key starts off at full tilt. "Jesse James" shows Gogo's slide guitar skills. "I Can Still Hear You Crying" is a slower blues in which his E-335 gently weeps. There's some boogie, with harp added by guest Gerry Barnum on "Blues Stay Away From My Home." "Walkin'" outright rocks. Gogo pulls the blues out of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and Curtis Mayfield's "Fool For You." And if you only know "Personal Jesus" in Johnny Cash's subdued rendition (or the original by Depeche Mode), here's a new take on it. The band (made up of Todd Sacerty on bass, Billy Hicks on drums, Brendan Hedley on keyboards and Rick Hopkins on organ) acquit themselves with aplomb. The blues rock out!
Finally the blues takes a turn down a lonely avenue on the new album by Otis Taylor. This is different; he calls it "trance blues" and it's conceptual, from the title to the performance. "A circle, by its simplest definition, is a space without corners. But Otis Taylor [has] little interest in definitions or conventions." So his bio says, and you can see it from the first notes of the first track. It's an almost John Lee Hookerish groove, with some stinging lead guitar and Taylor's growl. He describes each song with a one line note. "Little Betty" is described thus "a banjo player is seeing a married woman. The situation gets too hot and he decides to leave town." Hmm. It's one great groove. "Black's Mandolin Boogie" has the following note: "The book Princes Amongst Men by Garth Cartwright, inspired me to write a song about the plight of the Gypsies in Europe." Oh! Again it's shaped by a solid groove and Taylor's compelling voice. There are a variety of backing musicians on the album, including operatic singers Se Youn Kwon and Jun Ohashi, Rich Sharples on mandolin, Zach Miskin on cello, Brian Juan on piano and Gary Moore on lead guitar. Everyone adds a special touch but it's definitely Otis Taylor's vision that carries the album. "Trance blues?" Yep! Listen to it turned up loud. Feel the groove. There are a solid dozen grooves for you on this Definition of a Circle.
So "the blues all sounds the same," they say! Ha! And I repeat, Ha! Here are four albums, all filed under "blues" and not one of them sounds like another one. All four well worth adding to your collection.
