#746- > Charlie Musselwhite - Look Out Highway (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

2025 – Forty Below Records
Release Date : May, 16, 2025
 
By Phillip Smith; May, 17, 2025
 
Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com
 

With nearly sixty years of recording experience behind him, Charlie Musselwhite continues to push forward and produce critically acclaimed blues to stand the test of time.  His latest album Look Out Highway is an instant favorite. Recorded at Kid Andersen’s Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California with Matt Stubbs (GA-20) on guitar, June Core (Robert Lockwood Jr.) on drums, Randy Bermudes (James Cotton) on bass, and Kid Andersen sitting in on guitar, piano, and keys, this eleven-track album is plumb fantastic.

With an unescapable groove, the record kicks off with title-track “Look Out Highway”. It’s downright hypnotizing, and I love every bit of it. “Hip Shakin’ Mama” is an immediate hit for me. Sometimes one just can’t escape the blues, as Musselwhite sings with one foot in Tennessee and one in Mississippi on “Baby Won’t You Please Help Me”.  Flavored with Memphis-style soul featuring Andersen on organ, this one surely cooks. Being a drifter on the road, sets the stage for the slow blues of “Highway 61”.  Having traveled that highway back and forth from Arkansas to Iowa countless times over the past thirty-three years, I can surely identify with Charlie when he states ‘Sixty-One Highway is the longest road I know’. Topping out at number one on the US Country charts in 1978 for Crystal Gayle, “Ready For Times To Get Better” lands as the only cover on the album.  Featuring Edna Luckett joining in on a duet with Musselwhite, this absolutely fabulous version of the song cuts right to the bone. It surely seems to be even more relevant today than when it was released. The attention-grabbing surprise on the record is the “Ghosts in Memphis”. This intoxicating track about Memphis-borne spirits and haints features Musselwhite’s haunting harp licks blended in an innovative way with rap vocals from Memphis-based artist Al Kapone. It is an extraordinary track.  

Look Out Highway is destined to be a hit record. This cocktail of Delta Blues, Chicago Blues, Memphis Soul and Country makes for a memorable listen each and every time I hear it.       

  

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Photo © Michael Weintrob

Photo © Michael Weintrob

For more information about Charlie Musselwhite, visit his website https://www.charliemusselwhite.com/

 

For other PhillyCheeze reviews of Charlie Musselwhite, visit this link https://phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com/search?q=charlie+musselwhite

 

 

#321 : Rockin’ Johnny Burgin - Neoprene Fedora

2017 – West Tone Records

By Phillip Smith; Feb. 24, 2018

Rockin’ Johnny Burgin has been putting out righteous blues music for at least twenty years, and his latest release Neoprene Fedora is no exception.  On this sixteen track record, Burgin further explores the blues, taps into some California surf guitar, and steps into the world of zydeco for a few songs.  Again, recording at the Greaseland Studios in San Jose, California, Burgin enlists a super group of notable musicians to join him: Kid Andersen (guitar/bass/piano), Aki Kumar (harp/percussion/vocals), Bob Welsh (guitar/piano), Alabama Mike (vocals), Vance Ehlers (bass), June Core (drums/percussion), Stephen Dougherty (drums), Nancy Wright (sax.), Steve Willis (accordion), Billy Wilson (rub board), and Chris Matheos (bass).

Title track, Neoprene Fedora is one smokin’ cool tune.  This is California surf at its best.  With Nancy Wright on sax, and Kid Andersen joining in on guitar, the song pretty much soars skyward with its over seven minute instrumental jam.  I love how Burgin’s cover of “Give Me an Hour in Your Garden” drips with authenticity.  Originally recorded by Papa John Creech on his 1972 album Filthy, Burgin wails this one with heart and soul as Anderson joins in on piano.  Alabama Mike steps in on vocals and Aki Kumar on harp, as Burgin breaks the funk out on “Smoke and Mirrors”. This juicy track is soaked in the raw grit of the mid-Seventies, and I dig every bit of it.  Burgin connects right in to the essence of the average blue-collar worker in “I Ain’t Gonna Be a Working Man No More”.  Featuring a driving rhythm from Ehlers and Dougherty and the guitar prowess of the great Bob Welsh, the song buries in deep.  With a Smokestack Lightnin riff, Burgin bids a personal adieu to the Windy City in “Goodbye Chicago” and sets his scope on the Sunkist State, where he now resides.  It’s a wonderful homage.      

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Charlie Musselwhite - I Ain’t Lyin’…

2015 – Henrietta Records

By Phillip Smith; Oct. 31, 2015

 

I Ain’t Lyin’…, the latest album from legendary Bluesman Charlie Musselwhite is chockfull of downhome blues and happens to be a sheer delight.  The album was recorded live in 2014 at the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival in Sonoma, CA, and Clarksdale Soundstage in Clarksdale, MS, with Matt Stubbs (guitar), June Core (drums), and Steve Froberg (bass).   

I love how Musselwhite takes on Elmore James’ “Done Somebody Wrong”.  Stubbs’ crisp bluesy riffs and Musselwhite’s second- to-none harp playing sound so good.  There’s a sort of playful Fifties rockabilly vibe going in “Long Lean Lanky Mama”. It’s just a fun song to dig into, as is “My Kinda Gal” with Froberg’s cool-as-hell, cowboy-fitted baseline.  The band gets kind of funky on “Long Leg Woman”. Its Allman Brothers feel makes it one of my favorite tracks on this album.  This is definitely a song that jams.    

Duke Pearson’s “Cristo Redentor” is such a lovely piece.  This slow and easy instrumental is exquisite.  Core’s drumming really shines and Stubbs so elegantly keeps the rhythm going as Musselwhite beautifully plays his heart out on harmonica.

Musselwhite scores big with I Ain’t Lyin’… This is how the Blues should be played.

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