Capital Blues Reissues

The second group of Capitol Blues Reissues from EMI continues the high standard of the first set. Five new releases along with a sampler compilation are in the same distinctive packaging with solid annotation and illustration andfirst-rate music. These reissues serve as a final testament to blues scholar, writer and producer, Pete Welding, who was the executive producer of this series. Welding, a former Down Beat, Blues Unlimited, Rolling Stone and Living Blues contributor, also headed Testament Records, was A&R for Playboy Records (responsible for that label's releases by Phillips Walker and Leadbelly), and was involved in numerous reissue projects over the years. The quality of the Capitol Blues series, including his own liner notes for several volumes, is not surprising to those of us who relied on his Down Beat reviews of twenty five years ago in building blues collections. According to the monthly publication ICE, Billy Vera is taking over the as the series executive producer.

The musical level of these five new releases may be higher than the initial reissues in the series. Texas  Guitar Killers (Capitol CDP 33915) is the only compilation among the present releases, and brings together a diverse group of performers. Included are several superb recordings by T-Bone Walker from the Old Swingmaster label that Walker recorded in December 1945, along with several alternate takes of Walker's Imperial work. These supplement the available reissues of Walker's Black & White and Imperial
recordings. They are exceptional sides with tasty small group backings (with particularly interesting hom voicings on the 1945 recordings). Another electric guitar R&B pioneer, Lowell Fulson is heard on two different sessions. The earlier 1948 session is comprised of Texas country blues duets with brother Martin, while a 1953 big band session provides a completely different, jump-band flavor. Other recordings include Gatemouth Brown's first recordings, a couple of strong tracks from Pee Wee Crayton, country blues sung by LC. Wilams backed by Lightnin' Hopkins, and thirteen (sometimes chaotic) selections from Smokey Hogg (some with Hadda Brooks on piano) that display his down-home Texas roots along with his idiosyncratic sense of time. Mark Humphrey's notes place this diverse and lively music in its musical and historical context.

Some will remember Mississippi Fred McDowell's double album, I Do Not Play No Rock'N'Roll. A two-disc release includes that long out-of-print album, along with the same title (Capitol CDP 33919) with selections issued on an obscure album, Just Sunshine, and unissued takes and tunes, all from the same sessions, produced by Malaco Records Tommy Couch. McDowell, perhaps the last great traditional Mississippi blues musician, is the foremost of the bluesmen discovered by folklorist Alan Lomax in the late fifties, playing an intense slide guitar style marked by his keen cutting tone and his percussive, mantra-like rhythms. Echoes can be heard in R.L Burnside and (to a lesser extent) Junior Kimbrough, but neither reaches the level of McDowell. The recordings here are among the first McDowell made using an electric guitar, and Couch backed him with a couple of rock musicians on bass and drums who provide firm, sympathetic accompaniment on many numbers. Many of these tunes were recorded by McDowell on several occasions, but his renditions of Kokomo Me Baby, Red Cross Store, 61 Highway, and Write Me a Few of Your Lines, as well as his interpretations of Baby Please Don't Go, Good Moming Little School Girl and Drop Down Mama, stand up with his best recordings of these items. With the simple rhythm backing added to his highly charged hesitating guitar riffs on Drop Down Mama, it makes for a high voltage performance that one will have trouble sitting still to. While a few tunes may come off as not as tightly executed, the overall level is quite high, and it is certainly one of the more valuable additions to the Capitol Blues series.

John Lee Hooker may be the most prolific blues recording artist of all time. Particularly around the late forties and early fifties, he made numerous recordings for a variety of labels, most done for either Bernie Besman or Joe Van Battle, operators of small Detroit labels as well as lessors of material to national labels.Such recordings as Boogie Chillum, Crawling King Snake, Hobo Blues, and I'm in the Mood, established Hooker as a National act. Ace Records' has collected Hooker's most commercially important sides from this period on The Legendary Modern Recordings (available on Flair in the US), while Hooker albums on Charly, Specialty and Krazy Kat collect other Hooker recordings from this time. Newly issued is Alternative Boogie (Capitol CDP 33912), a three disc album that brings together two vinyl albums, Coast to Coast Blues Band, and the three record set, John Lee Hooker's Detroit, that United Artists issued in the early seventies after the success of Hooker 'N' Heat (the collaboration with the blues-rock band, Canned Heat). These albums (reissued on this set) made available alternative takes and other songs by Hooker from the stockpile of producer Besman. Hooker's guitar boogies and moody. slow high intensity blues formed a distinctive and powerful body of blues, and the level of these and other performances of the time are remarkably high, such as the takes of John Lee's Original Boogie (an altemative of Boogie Chillum), I Rule My Den (a variant of Crawling King Snake), three versions of I'm in the Mood and other strong cuts. Some of these sides include either Andrew Durham or Eddie Kirkland on second guitar, James Watkins on piano and Eddie Burns on harmonica. And while many of these are alternatives to issued recordings, Hooker's performances from this time have a particularly improvisatory feel to them. Those who are into John Lee Hooker's early recordings know what to expect and will have to consider whether they want this material or not, while those more familiar with his band boogie recordings may want to first check out the Ace-Flair or Specialty discs of Hooker's early music first. However those, like this writer, who are into Hooker's early recordings will find plenty of musical treasures here.

After Freddie King signed with the independent Shelter label, he was able to get his friend Jimmy Rogers onto the label as well. Chicago Blues Masters: Volume Two: Jimmy Rogers (Capitol CDP 33916) makes available Rogers Shelter album along with four unissued tracks. Included are sessions with pianist Bob Riedy, the Aces, and Riedy's own band with Freddie King guesting. Rogers was a member of Muddy Waters greatest band (and later Howlin' Wolf's band), leaving Waters after his success with That's All Right. He made recordings for Chess that are amongst the finest examples of Chicago band blues. His Shelter recordings were among the first he made after resuming music. The earliest sides include remakes of such classic Chess tunes like Act Like You Love Me and Broken Hearted Blues along with the fine new blues, Gold Tailed Bird, still a staple of his performances today. While Rogers is in good voice, the backing provided by the Aces is surprisingly more functional than the spectacular accompaniment they often provided. Better are the selections with Riedy's band (the band Rogers was then regularly associated with). The best of these also sports some tremendous guitar by Freddie King with spirited new renditions of such classic Chess recordings as That's All Right, You're Sweet, Sloppy Drunk and You're the One. The final four songs (without King) include a tasty remake of Blues (Follow Me All Day Long) and a reworking of Sonny Boy Williamson I's Decoration Day Blues titled I Lost a Good Woman, with added horns. These sound better than I remember, although they are overshadowed by the best of Rogers' Chess recordings (look for the Chicago Bound album on cd).

The last new album is devoted to Snooks Eaglin, The Complete Imperial Recordings (Capitol CDP 33918). Eaglin, one of New Orleans' most celebrated contemporary performers was known to many as a street performer before his compelling recent recordings for Black Top. These early 1960 sides were produced by Dave Bartholomew and include the legendary James Booker on piano. There is a mix of classic blues like C.C.Rider and J.B. Lenoir's Mama Talk to Your Daughter, Bartholomew's own songs like That Certain Door and Goin' to The River, along with efforts obviously inspired by the contemporary pop music of the time. Those familiar with Eaglin's singular guitar style with its quirky twists and unusual rhythmic emphases will hear it in these 26 short tunes, though with a less fiery, chicken scratching tone than his recent recordings, while his heart-felt and earnest singing might explain why he never enjoyed great commercial success at the time. There are seven previously unissued tunes and one can hear occasional minor glitches in the performances or the ensemble work, but otherwise these wide-spanning performances have substantial entertainment value in addition to their historical nature.

In addition to these releases,Capitol also has issued a sampler collection Livin' With the Blues (Capitol CDP 31747) with tracks from these and the initial seven releases in the series. The packaging,  annotation and the material on all the Capitol Blues releases is first rate, and one could hardly go wrong from an entertainment point of view with any of these. I look forward to future releases under Billy Vera's direction.

This review originally appeared in the March 1996 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 209). I believe I received review copies from EMI. I am not sure of the availability of these reissues today, but one might to check used CD stores.

George Mitchell's 1967 Trip to the Mississippi Hill Country

George Mitchell

Mississippi Hill Country Blues 1967

University Press of Mississippi

In the Summer of 1967, George Mitchell made a trip to Mississippi looking for unrecorded blues singers. The trip was a historic one that indicated that there were a number of down home blues artists of considerable talent still performing older styles of blues at a very high level. These were not the first recordings Mitchell had made, but in providing the initial recordings of R.L. Burnside as well as rediscovering Joe Calicott, who had recorded over 45 years earlier, Mitchell’s recordings were revelatory. Arhoolie issued two albums from Mitchell's recordings under the title Mississippi Delta Blues, although the recordings today are thought of as Mississippi Hill Country Blues, the rubric applied today to the music of Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Jesse Mae Hemphill and others. The trip also was the source for Mitchell’s classic book Blow My Blues Away.

In addition to documenting the music, through his camera Mitchell photographed these performers at home and with members of their families and community. The University Press of Mississippi has just published a terrific new book by Mitchell, Mississippi Hill Country Blues 1967 that reproduces many wonderful photographs that Mitchell took along with his recollections from that trip and interviews with a number of the performers he met including Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Rosa Lee Hill and Otha Turner. 

The pictures and words help us enter a world of house parties and picnics as we witness Johnny Woods on harmonica joining with Mississippi Fred McDowell. Mitchell was amazed by the fact they had not seen each other in 8 years when this happened. Then Mitchell recounts recording Calicott, who had made a few 78s with Garfield Acres and one under his own name, and a trip to one of the Hill Country picnics in a chapter titled Ain’t No Picnic If You Ain’t Got No Drums. R.L. Burnside is pictured playing guitar with a son or sons standing behind him. There are images of Joe Calicott playing his guitar on a porch and Fred McDowell reaching over Otha Turner to play the guitar Otha is holding and several pictures of Rosa Lee Hill that show the joy she exhibited despite the poverty she lived under.

An interview with Otha Turner provides backdrop for the Fife and Drum band traditions, but Turner turns out to be a fair guitarist himself. Turner is not the only representative of this tradition as several images feature Napoleon Strickland, who was fairly renown as a fife player. There are interviews with Jesse Mae Hemphill (Brooks), Rosa Lee Hill and Ada Mae Anderson, all of whom were related to the legendary Sid Hemphill who Alan Lomax recorded for the Library of Congress in the early 1940s. In addition to providing insight to their lives and the conditions they lived under, they also provided information on this great Hill Country legend  Jesse Mae Hemphill is the best known of the the three with her marvelous recordings, but like Mitchell himself, one is particularly taken with Rosa Lee Hill who as Mitchell says could stand as an inspiration for all. She was poor as anyone could be and lived in the middle of no where but was one of Mitchell's favorite persons, “That someone that poor could be that spirited and that full of life. …” Mississippi Hill  Country Blues 1967 is dedicated to her. 

Brief biographies presented at the end of this book all provide brief comments of what happened to the subjects after 1967 and a consideration of the legacy of these artists. Even if viewed solely as a coffee table book of blues photography (and the holidays are coming up) this book is easy to recommend. Inclusion of Mitchell’s recollections and interviews which help us understand the world of these performers, make this essential for blues lovers. 

I purchased this book. Some of MItchell's recordings from this trip have been reissued on Arhoolie CDs, while others are available in the Fat Possum box set, The George Mitchell Collection. Here is a link to the University Press of Mississippi blog that was posted before this book was published. It contains some sample photos.

Guitarist Small's Acoustic "Black, White & Blues"

Solo performer Mark T. Small had a background playing in bluegrass bands which perhaps is the source of his blazingly-fast flat-picking style. This New England Native though started gravitating to the blues, leading a band The Lonesome Strangers. Around 2000, he began to pursue a solo career, stating “I started developing the solo show because I love the freedom associated with playing alone.” He has just issued a solo recording, his new CD, “Blacks, Whites & the Blues,” on Lead Foot Music. It consists of 14 songs, many classic blues but a few from others sources.

It is an interesting and enjoyable recording with a gruffly delivered, driving solo rendition of Muddy Waters’ Trouble No More. His original Boogie Woogie Country Man, displays flat-picking chops on a rockabilly flavored performance. Emphatic guitar and a slightly overstated vocal characterize his rendition of Little Red Rooster. There is a nice solo on this. Hesitation Blues is a likable traditional blues with nice picking and slide on his National guitar. He picks up a telecaster for an energetic rendition of John Lee Hooker’s Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, while he is back to the National for Fred McDowell’s “61 Highway.”

Small’s flat-picking skills are displayed on the traditional Old Gray Mare, which is played in Norman Blake’s style. Six White Horses also has a nice country tinge with a strutting rhythm. A solo rendition of The Thrill Is Gone, has inventive guitar riffs and solos intertwined with Small’s coarse singing. A nice rendition of Fred McDowell’s A Few More Lines follows where Small’s playing emulates the late Mississippi legend. Catfish Blues has fresh guitar embellishments on the familiar Delta blues, although Small’s vocal could have been a bit looser. It is followed by a unremarkable Sweet Home Chicago, a song where he adds little to the multiple previous recordings of this.

The relaxed A Georgia Camp Meeting stands in contrast to most of the other performances and is followed by a nice ragtime instrumental, Scott Joplin’s Solace, which Small notes is the only time Joplin employed the tango rhythm. The thoughtful, genial playing provides a delightful close to this recording. While Small’s vocals might not match his imaginative and interesting guitar, he has produced an imperfect gem in Blacks, Whites & the Blues. It should appeal to fans of acoustic blues and blues-roots music.


A publicist for this release supplied me with a review copy.

Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings

It was in 1959 when Alan Lomax returned to the North Mississippi Hill country that he had been in 1940-1941 recording the varied repertoire of Sid Hemphill and others. He had discovered a variety of others including the Pratcher Brothers as well as Ed and Lonnie Young. It was at Lonnie’s house that a small farmer in overalls came over to his neighbor’s with his guitar after a day of picking cotton. When the man started playing, Lomax realized that here was a master musician. On Saturday Lomax came to his house to record for the first time Mississippi Fred McDowell. A bit over 5 years ago, Rounder issued a McDowell album HIs First Recordings, from Lomax’s archive, but now on the Global Jukebox, the Alan Lomax Archive’s label, comes Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings. The twelve recordings here predate when Mississippi was added to his name, although their is some duplication with the Rounder release (from song titles and track length), there are several selections which appear to be issued for the first time.

Fred McDowell arguably was the last great Mississippi blues artist (with due respect to Jr. Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside) and listening to these recordings from over a half century ago, one can still hear what it was that caught Lomax’s attention. WIth McDowell’s sister Fanny Davis on comb, his wife Annie Mae joining on vocals and Miles Pratcher adding second guitar for a few selections, it is still McDowell’s gritty vocals and slide guitar that draws us in. Whining slide guitar is set against a driving, droning accompaniment that mesmerizes. While he adapted Bukka White’s Shake ‘Em Down, the song seems even more focused than the powerful original.

Fred McDowell Blues, sounds like a composite of John Lee Williamson’s Down South Blues, and Sleepy John Estes’ Diving Duck Blues, made coherent but McDowell’s aching singing and strong accompaniment. Drop Down Mama is another Estes blues that McDowell transformed into a staple of his repertoire in his readily identifiable style. Also recorded that night was When You Get Home Please Write Me A Few of Your Lines, which he learned from Eli Green with whom McDowell played with after moving to Como from Memphis in the early 1940s. Then there were a couple of gospel numbers including Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, with his wife joining on vocal.” A gospel number “When the Train Comes Along,” has his accompaniment behind the vocal by Sid Hemphill Carter and Rosalie Hill.

The performances have been digitally remastered from the original tapes and the sound is exemplary. Included is a booklet annotated by Arhoolie Records’ Adam Machado and the Alan Lomax Archive’s Nathan Salsburg that provide history of Lomax’s Mississippi recordings and Fred McDowell’s life and music. The playing time is only 37 minutes, however, the music displays McDowell as among the greatest of down home blues artists. From these superb recordings made at his home, he would go on to make a many more equally compelling recordings over the next decade or so, influencing not just R.L. Burnside and his progeny, but also the likes of Bonnie Raitt. For more information on this and other releases from the Lomax archive vist http://www.culturalequity.org/features/globaljukebox/ce_features_globaljukebox.php.


A publicist for this recording enabled me to download my review copy of this.

Lightnin' Malcolm Hills Country Blues Roots

This writer was not enthusiastic with the collaboration of Lightnin’ Malcolm and Cedric Burnside on the 2Man Wrecking Crew CD. It struck me as perhaps taking the North Mississippi Hills groove associated with Fred McDowell and R.L. Burnside in a very limited manner. Malcolm, a Missouri native, who immersed himself in the music of this style is back with a release Renegade on Ruf Records where Cameron Kimbrough, the grandson of Junior Kimbrough, is on drums and several selections have a horn section added.

While its been awhile since I listened to the earlier disc, the performances here strike me as a bit more focused in performance. Kimbrough does a fine job in complementing Malcolm’s vocals and guitar which more than on one occasion evoke Mississippi Fred McDowell. The Hill Country blues style that is the foundation makes use of repetitive, hypnotic grooves that can bore but Malcolm avoids here with his guitar that displays an economy of expression (and aided by Kimborugh’s often lighter percussive touch) as well as his haunting vocals. This is clear on the opening Ain’t Even Worried, as well as the following Stop Fightin’ Over Me with a chugging groove in the vein of some of R.L.Burnside’s numbers with judicious use of tremolo in his fuzzy tone. The rocking groove of So Many Women recalls several of Fred McDowell’s songs such as Write Me a Few Lines, in a most compelling fashion.

The title track is more in the vein of roots rock with some heavily distorted guitar, while the horns embellish Guilty Man providing a different flavor and adding to the variety here. Last Nite I Held An Angel is taken at a dirge-like tempo as his angel has to fly, followed by Precious Jewel with its rock steady reggae groove and horns along with Nadirah Shakoor joining on the vocal. Perhaps because of what might be described as some awkwardness in the lyrics, this is a very appealing track. Come Go With Me is a lesser performance although with a sample dance groove. North Mississippi is a celebration of his home area with brassy punch added by the horns before J Grubbz adds a rap. Foxfire Ranch is a chugging instrumental that builds on a simple musical riff.

There may some songs on this that may strike some as less than inspired, but Lightnin’ Malcolm certainly performs with plenty of heart and conviction here. Overall Lightnin’ Malcolm may be a Renegade but he has produced a solid album rooted in the Hills Country Blues.


The review copy was received from a publicist for the record label.

Delta Moon Takes The Hellbound Train

Delta Moon, a blues-rooted Atlanta based band features the twin slide guitars of Tom Gray (also a notable songwriter who wrote for Cyndi Lauper (Money Changes Everything), Carlene Carter and others) and Mark Johnson. While both started playing in rock bands, before both started playing slide guitar and started playing together adding bass and drums they started playing nightclubs. Bassist Franher Joseph and drummer Darren Stanley joined Delta Moon in 2007. Red Parlor Records (Blues Boulevard in Europe) has just issued Delta Moon’s sixth CD Hellbound Train. Gray played a part in writing all ten originals (there is one cover) with Johnson contributed to seven of them, and Joseph and Stanley also are credited on a couple of selections. Francine Reed adds backing vocals to several selections.

Not familiar with their prior records, one is struck by a certain Dylanesque quality to some of the performances in terms of the song imagery and the strong blue feel of the performances. Gray’s lap steel and Johnson’s slide provide this feel with some keen, whining playing with the rhythm section providing simple emphatic (perhaps a trifle too emphatic) backing. Listened by themselves, the lyrics are intriguing although many of the performances share similar tempos (an exception being the high-stepping Ain’t No Train. The one cover is “You’ve Got to Move,” and Fred McDowell’s influence on the two guitarists would be evident even without there performance of this tune. Also, the simple driving rhythms and melodies also display this influence as well as the blues of the North Mississippi Hill Country. Take the Back Road, stands out in contrast with a country-rock feel, while the closing Plantation Song, is a folk lament.

Not strictly a blues recording with some folk and country touches, but certainly the blues roots of much of Hellbound Train, is clearly evident. Several of the songs are clever and interesting although several of the performances did sound similar, so this may be best enjoyed sampled a few songs at time, but clearly worth checking out. This can be obtained from http://deltamoon.com. A number of their earlier releases are available on cdbaby, and this may be when officially released in April.

A publicist for this release sent me a review copy. This review originally appeared in the May 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 325)

Rory Block Shakes 'Em On Down

Rory Block was fortunate to learn her music from (in addition to recordings) some of the masters of the blues idiom from such then surviving masters as Reverend Gary Davis, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Mississippi Fred McDowell. After her album devoted to Robert johnson’s music, she has continued with a disc of the music of Son House and now Mississippi Fred McDowell as part of a series of recordings where she salutes those who mentored her. Her Robert Johnson tribute was modeled closely on Johnson’s originals whereas her Son House tribute she mixed some performances with others that took more liberties. On her newest CD, Shake ‘Em on Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell (Stony Plain) she has written originals as well as given her own interpretation to McDowell’s songs.

The fact that her interpretations of songs associated with McDowell are personal interpretations along with her originals that incorporate elements of McDowell’s percussive, slide style without being a pastiche of such style, makes this a very different and, in my opinion, the most successful of her tribute recordings. It should be noted that it certainly sounds as if there is overdubbing of guitar parts and vocals, but it is wonderfully recorded so kudos to Rob Davis for the excellent engineering job.

This tribute opens with two of Ms Block’s originals. Steady Freddy, which has a forceful accompaniment as she has penned lyrics re-creating McDowell’s autobiography although the dialect is that of Ms Block and not Fred McDowell. It is followed by the remarkable Mississippi Man, a fully realized performance in part this song is Rory’s own story as a fifteen year old and her meeting the Mississippi Man. These lead in to her interpretations of McDowell’s songs that evoke the master while having her place her own stamp on them. She captures the mesmerizing flavor on Kokomo Blues, and that Eleven Light City. Good Morning Little School Girl is a bit more reflective and less rhythmically insistent than McDowell’s renditions, as she recasts the lyrics from the standpoint of the school girl who wants to go back home with the school boy. What’s the Matter Now, impressively builds on McDowell’s driving guitar style while vocally she lengthens the lyrics for her impassioned vocals.

Shake ‘Em Down illustrates her natural distillation of McDowell’s driving, droning guitar style while she overdubs vocals which she convincingly delivers, employs a pronounced rhythmic emphasis, while Worried Mind is a nice rendition of McDowell’s performance that might have come from John Estes’ Someday Baby, or perhaps Big Maceo’s Worried Life Blues. Whatever, Block makes this her own just like Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell, Big Maceo and others had done. The Man That I’m Lovin’, is likewise another song associated with Sleepy John Estes that McDowell translated into his style which again proves potent inspiration for Ms. Block who reinvents it yet anew.

Ancestral Home is another Rory original that incorporates elements of African musical traditions with her lyrics about the slave trade mixed with her overdubbing some African dialect in the vocal. Another original, the powerful The Breadline was originally an instrumental medley built from McDowell riffs to which she added lyrics about losing one’s home and can’t pay her lawyer and the rich folks on vacation “they don’t give a damn” with the line “hard times are here again” so contemporary and relevant. The album concludes with Woke Up This Morning, one of McDowell’s moving gospel songs with Rory’s moving multi-tracked vocals, followed by her strong re-imaging of another of McDowell’s signature songs, Write Me a Few of Your Lines.

Rory Block deserves kudos for this marvelous tribute with its ambitious and imaginative look at McDowell’s work that is inspired by the spirit of McDowell’s music, but has her imprint on all the performances. Of the eight songs associated with Fred McDowell, she has included a few of his signature songs, but also included lesser known parts of his repertoire and that added to her own originals making for a superb recording.


I received my review copy from Stony Plain Records.

John-Alex Mason's "Juke Joint Thunderbolt"

Colorado based John-Alex Mason got the blues bug after hearing Muddy Waters’ “Hard Again” album and then seeing James Cotton and Johnny Winter in concerts and later getting the complete Robert Johnson recordings began a fascination with solo country blues. He has had several albums, the most recent having been “Town & Country,” which I never got around to reviewing but have it uploaded to itunes and on my ipod and every time I hear a track from it, I take notice. In the context of his new CD, I listened to the CD as a whole again, and remained impressed by his ability to handle the music of Bukka White, Skip James, Charlie Patton and others. These showed how much he has learned from the masters but made his ‘covers’ highly personalized and wonderfully played. His vocals capturing some of the delta haze of those who have inspired him. Mostly solo, the Cd also included some juking ensemble tracks including a lively Shake You Money Maker.

Mason’s new CD is Juke Joint Thunderbolt which sounds more in the vein of the Hill Country blues of North Mississippi mixed with a bit of Bukka White. The title is explained by the fact that a Juke Joint is an afro-caribe expression for a place or experience to have fun and dance and juke the trouble out of yourself while Thunderclap is when thunder and lightning are so close together that it seems that the thunder rolls away from you. In any event, the spirit of the title is present on the music here. Mason has an impressive group of guests including Cody and Cedric Burnside, grandsons of R.L. Burnside’ Lightnin’ Malcolm, Gary Hundt and others. The ensembles vary, but much of this has a trance-like vive characteristic of the Northern Mississippi Hills Country Blues. I find the playing a bit tighter and the rhythm less thrashing around than some other recent recordings in this vein.

The opening “My Old Lonesome Home” cranks out a hot, irresistible groove on a one-man band rig with Hundt wailing on harp as moans about the world getting better and we are getting older. Cedric Burnside is on drums for Gone So Long, as Mason makes use of repetition in his lyrics and his guitar accompaniment as he wonders has it been so long since you been gone while Cody Burnside adds a rap that is intertwined seamlessly with Mason’s lyrics and vocals. Its one of two tracks where Cody Burnside raps in among the most successful and natural integrations of the blues tradition and rap. More Than Wind, with Hundt on mandolin, has more of a folk-country flavor as Mason informs us “love don’t linger well up cool and fresh.” Riding On is the other song with Cody Burnside but in addition to Mason’s vocal and droning guitar, the accompaniment include Cedric Burnside on drums, Fara Tolno and Alya Sylla on djembe, Fasinet Bangoura on balafon, Hundt repeating a harp riff, Lightnin’ Malcolm adding searing guitar and Lionel Young playing crosscut saw fiddle creating a mesmerizing rhythm and making Mason’s vocal sound more compelling music.

Mason, using his one man band rig, provides a marvelous rendition of Rolled and Tumbled, with Hundt’s simple harp an effective foil for this slow-drag treatment of a pre-war blues standard. The philosophical lyric of Diamond Rain, is set to a folk country setting with Young adding some nice violin. Signifying Monkey, is taken from Oscar Brown’s recording of this bawdy number but is performed by Mason at a slow, dirge-like tempo with Lightnin’ Malcolm and Cedric Burnside helping instill the trance-like groove. Free moves back to a hill country stomp groove as Mason, as a one-man band, delivers his message of gonna fly because he is free and see what’s left of me with Fara Tolno’s djembe adding to the musical covering. Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcolm contribute to the exceptional rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Write Me a Few of Your Lines, with Mason adding his own effective harp along with the driving rhythm.

The closing Whisper is a solo guitar performance with Mason’s bluesy vocal matched by a spare, folky accompaniment that concludes this superb recording. In addition to the ten selections on cd, one can download two tracks on his website johnalexmason.com. a prologue track, Delta Bound and an Epilogue that is a rendition of Robert Johnson’s If You’ve Got a Good Friend.

The review copy was provided by a publicist.