Release Date : May, 2, 2025
British blues singer Emma
Wilson’s 2023 release Memphis Calling was one of my favorite albums
of that year. Her latest recording, A
Spoonful of Willie Dixon further solidifies my deep appreciation for her musical
and vocal talent. This idea for this homage to the legendary Mississippi-born
bluesman Willie Dixon was sparked by Wilson’s visit last May to Clarksdale,
Mississippi where she performed at a benefit at Ground Zero Blues Club
for the Pinetop Perkins Foundation. On this EP, she exquisitely breathes
new life into six Dixon-penned songs, offering a selection of classic
hits, and deep cuts. Recorded live in one day at Crystalship Studios in Sheffield,
England, the recording features Wilson on lead vocals with her band
consisting of guitarist Nik Svarc, bassist Ian Leese, drummer Mark
Barrett, and Bennett Holland on Hammond organ, piano, and
backing vocals.
“Spoonful”, first recorded by the great Howlin’ Wolf, wonderfully sets the tone as the opening track. Wilsons’s sultry vocals, Leese’s fearless bassline, Holland’s barrelhouse piano, and Svarc’s guitar mastery are nicely woven together so the song can be felt as well as heard. With a dreamy approach, Wilson gracefully makes the 1956 Otis Rush song “I Can’t Quit You Baby” her own. The lifting sounds of the Hammond organ and those wonderful blues-soaked guitar licks drill right down to the soul. Of course, from the opening sounds of “Wang Dang Doodle”, I am in my happy place along with Automatic Slim and Razor-totin’ Jim. The pièce de resistance is Wilson’s performance on “It Don’t Make Sense (You Can’t Make Peace)” from Dixon’s 1984 album Mighty Earthquake and Hurricane. This is such a beautiful song, and seemingly even more relevant today than when it was written. As Willie Dixon stated once before performing the song, “Suppose you had to spend half as much money on trying to make peace as you had been making war, you wouldn’t have to worry about nothing. But it don’t make sense. It don’t make sense. It don’t make sense when you can’t make peace.”.
Emma Wilson has scored another hit with this recording. A Spoonful of Willie Dixon is an absolutely brilliant tribute to one the greatest songwriters of the Twentieth Century.
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For more information about Emma
Wilson, visit her website https://www.emmawilson.net
For other PhillyCheeze
reviews of Emma Wilson, visit this link https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/search?q=emma+wilson
