Guitarist Spencer Bohren has certainly come a long way since he got his guitar in 1964. His incorporation of country, gospel, folk and blues into a strong roots guitar style and his naturally, slightly weathered vocals has enabled him to build a following of those who appreciate his skilled and heartfelt songs and musicianship. Threadhead Records has just issued his most recent recording, Blackwater Music, where he turns his attention to eleven originals on which he son André is on drums and percussion for many.
The opening Old Louisa’s Movin’ On, has a bluesy groove with wistful lyrics about a woman left alone in the family home with his nicely paced guitar. More of a country-rock feel (Bob Seger anyone) characterizes Your Home Is In My Heart, with Rod Hodges adding biting electric guitar while Spencer adds some whining lap steel. Accompanied by just lap steel guitar, Bohren’s It Gonna Take a Miracle, an understated topical song about hard times and how we are running out of time to deal with some of our problems (oil in the water and smoke in the sky, its moment of truth but they keep telling us lies). Bad Luck Bone, with son André’s simple percussion and Spencer’s hypnotic guitar riff has a haunting mood enhanced by the spare playing.
Has Anyone Seen Mattie? is a nice Piedmont blues tune with Matt Rhody’s violin adding a country accent to the relaxed fingerstyle blues dealing with a missing woman after the levee did break. Take Me To Rampart Street, is a delightful raggy number with a traditional jazz accompaniment with Amasa Miller’s strutting piano and Aurora Nealand’s Bechet evoking soprano sax adding to the relaxed, lively performance. The title track again is an attractive blues that finds Bohren alone on lap steel as he sings about here we don’t play Dixie no more, and “feel that back beat stomp, hear that guitar slide.” Son André piano accompanies Spencer’s vocal on Your Love a blues ballad that is in the style of some of Ray Charles 50’s compositions.
The Old Homestead is a wistful folk-blues reflecting about the days of his youth and how his family members have grown up and moved on with an gentle fingerstyle accompaniment in the manner of Elizabeth Cotton. The plight of Native Americans and the origin of such (the white man stole our land, treated us like dirt, they poisoned everything they touched, they are still not through) is the subject of Listen to the Wind, where Aurora Nealand on accordion and André’s drums and percussion lend atmosphere to this concluding performance of a remarkable recording. Bohren’s natural, grainy vocals; his adept, relaxed playing; and his thoughtful lyrics have produced the outstanding Blackwater Music.
This was a purchase. His website is http://www.spencerbohren.com/ and this CD and his others can be purchased at cdbaby.com, www.louisianamusicfactory.com and other sites.
Frenchman Street is itself in the Bywater area just outside the French Quarter and the location of music venues such as Snug Harbor, d.b.a., The Spotted Cat, Blue Nile, and other music venues where one can hear Jazz Bands, Trad bands, Funk bands and more to paraphrase Shamarr Allen’s delightful Meet Me on Frenchman Street on which fellow trumpeter Kermit Ruffins joins for a celebration of the scene there. Songwriter Alex McMurray perhaps echoes what many might think when he sings You’ve Got to Be Crazy to Live In This Town, while blues and R&B singer Jesse Moore is heard on When the Hoodoo Come Down from a pre-Katrina CD. Glen David Andrews may be better known for gospel but his Dumaine Street Blues is a blues with brass band seasoning followed by The New Orleans Night Crawlers” with the invocation to party, Alright Alright.
Margie Perez & the King Cake Babies celebrate Mardi Gras Carnival, while Holley Bendtsen & Amasa Miller, joined by the Pfister Singers take us Down to Jazz Fest. Echoes of trad jazz support Paul Sanchez on his Exit to Mystery Street, while he is joined by John Boutté for their collaboration Stew Called New Orleans from a fine Threadhead disc by the two. The disc closes with Boutté’s updated take (from the 2006 JazzFest) of Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927 with his biting new lyrics about President Bush’s response to Katrina and the levees failing in addition to Newman’s lyrics about floods in cajun Louisiana. Previously it was available on a limited edition WWOZ fundraiser but this release makes this available to a larger audience and would almost be reason enough to buy this varied compilation by itself. But there are 11 other additional reasons for obtaining this lively collection.
Previously I ran my review of the Mystery Street compilation Vieux Carre and this is a companion to it. I purchased this disc.
Just to give a sampling of the contents there is an engaging rendition of Smiley Lewis’ Hook Line and Slinker, by the Creole String Beans, Ingrid Lucia’s sultry Midnight Rendezvous, John Boutté, Bill Lynn and Paul Sanchez joined by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for a cynical look at BP’s response to its Oil Well spill, Nobody Knows Nothin’, Tricia Boutté and the Norwegian Ytre Suloens Jass-Ensemble on a stirring gospel Keep Your Hands On the Plough (I downloaded the underlying CD Oh Mahalia after hearing this), Holley Bendtsen & Amasa Miller on a wonderful song about missing New Orleans, Creole Moon, Ensemble Fatien’s African-jazz reworking of St. James Infirmary, Paul Sanchez and friends including Shamarr Allen recounting the horrors of the levees breaking on the previously unreleased Home, and Matt Clark and others (Sanchez, Allen, Ivan Neville, and Teedy Boutté) letting us know their spirit is Bent Not Broken, and that New Orleans will be coming back.
This is such a marvelous sampling of the diversity of New Orleans music. Bent Not Broken and Nobody Knows Nothin’ were previously issued as digital singles and the other material is generally from recordings that can be obtained from www.louisianamusicfactory.com and better sources. The applicable websites are www.threadheadrecords.com and www.mysterystreetrecords.com.
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