2025 – Ray Cashman
By Phillip
Smith; Feb. 7,
2026
Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com
I was in Clarksdale,
Mississippi for the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival in August
of 2024, when I first heard Ray Cashman play. He was performing at Hambone
Gallery one of my favorite venues. Cashman’s music has a way of drawing
the listener in. Redemption Road,
his fourth and latest album boasts ten original masterfully-written songs reflective
of living in the rural South.
Cashman kicks this acoustic set of songs off with “Delta Town”. A rolling guitar riff and harp accompaniment are played to perfection as he sings this homage to Clarksdale, Mississippi. The festive sounds of a second-line beat lead the way for Cashman’s precision picking and addition of dobro on “Mudbugs”. It’s a grand song which gives me a craving for a bowlful of the poor-man’s lobster. The haunting sound of slide on resonator thickens the air for “Tomorrow’s Devil”. The ominous presence in both Cashman’s lyrics and performance pulls me right in. Turning over a new leaf can be a tough battle and Cashman’s title-track “Redemption Road” offers inspiration for those staring down the personal challenges they may be facing. I dig the infectious hill-country blues of “Come On”. One can feel the DNA of Burnside and Kimbrough embedded in the song.
There’s a definite sense of hard-scrabble roots throughout Redemption Road, and Cashman brilliantly it all into song.
Ray Cashman @ Hambone (Photo by Phillip Smith)
For more information about
Ray Cashman visit his website https://raycashman.net/press
Found on Bandcamp