2010 - Soulbilly Music Group
By Phillip Smith;
January 8, 2011
Vocalist Stevie DuPree and
songwriter/guitarist Travis Stephenson are the driving force behind The Delta
Flyers, a genuine down-home blues style band.
Sixteen Bars offers up ten top-notch original songs, covering the
trials and tribulations of the common man and those a little less fortunate.
When one is confronted
with the term, ‘Sixteen Bars’, without
taking too long to think about it, the sixteen bar blues easily comes to
mind. However. “Sixteen Bars”, the name
of the title track is clearly a reference to the number of bars across a jail
cell door. This track tells the crazy alcohol-fueled
hard-luck story of the events leading up to a long prison sentence. Played with lots of twangy slide guitar and accompanied
harmonica, this track is haunting and intriguing.
A little bit of a history lesson awaits those
who listen to “Dockery Farm”, a dirge about the hard life as a poor
share-cropper at the famous Dockery Farm cotton plantation outside
Cleveland, Mississippi. According to B.B. King, this is where it all
started. Dockery Farm, regarded as a birthplace of the American
Blues, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
Speaking of historical
places, move over Bob Dylan, there‘s a new song about Highway 61. I‘m talking about “61 Highway Blues“. Again, there is likely to be some killin’
done too. As Dupree puts it, ‘That old
61 highway sure can be a mean ole road.’.
Some great slide and some even
better story telling makes this a great song to start the album off
with.
The cut that really got my
attention on this album, was “Poison Took My Baby”. Though it’s only a bit over two and a half
minutes, this song takes a hard look at the damage drug and alcohol abuse wreak
on a relationship. As the song closes
with , ‘Damn that whisky. Damn that
needle’, there is no mistaking what the message here is all about.
I thoroughly enjoyed this
album. The Delta Flyers prove to be a
band to be reckoned with, and I anxiously await their next release..
Rating = 4/5
