Muddy Gurdy
2017 – Vizztone
Release Date : 2/2/18
By Phillip Smith;
Feb. 3, 2018
Muddy
Gurdy is absolutely one of the most interesting blues
albums I’ve heard in recent years. Hypnotic
Wheels, a trio of French musicians, Tia Gouttebel (guitar/vocals) Gilles
Chabenat (hurdy-gurdy) and Marc Glomeau (percussion) embarked on a
journey to the hills of North Mississippi to record with local blues artists
who are tightly connected to the fabulous music of their elders. The recordings were made using a hurdy-gurdy
as a second guitar and captured with an eight-microphone preamp and computer in
someone’s house, porch, front yard, or historic landmark such as Dockery
Farms or B.B. King’s Club Ebony.
From Mississippi, the contributing artists are Cedric Burnside, Shardé
Thomas, Cameron Kimbrough, and Pat Thomas.
I love the homage to R.L Burnside, with the
wonderfully hypnotic cover of “Goin’ Down South” and the driving beat of “See
My Jumper Hanging on the Line”. It’s in
these two tracks that the wonder of the hurdy-gurdy is revealed. Its swampy slide-like sound magically lends
itself to trance blues music in a very fitting fashion. Cedric Burnside, grandson to R.L appears
with acoustic guitar in hand and mic for a beautiful performance. He pays a wonderful tribute to his late
brother Cody Burnside on “That Girl is Bad”, and hangs around for a tantalizing
cover of Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ and Tumblin’”.
Muddy
Gurdy explores fife and drum music with Shardé Thomas. Thomas gives a delicate vocal and
fife performance on “Station Blues”, a song by her grandfather and fife-master Otha
Thomas. Her delivery of the traditional
“Glory Glory Hallelujah” is stunning.
It’s a real treat to hear Cameron Kimbrough,
tearing it up on guitar while singing his grandfather Junior’s “Leave
Her Alone”. The rolling rhythm pulls
me right in to its vortex of sound. Cameron inherently keeps the swirling
melodic framework in place for his own original tune, “Gonna Love You”. Pat Thomas’ “Dream” is downright
extraordinary. Sung and strummed by the
son of James “Son” Thomas at the Highway 61 Museum in Leland,
Mississippi, this folk-country blues song is a prime example of the
inner-beauty of music.
At Dockery Farms, Gouttebel takes the vocal
reins on Hypnotic Wheels’ rendition of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s
classic “Shake ‘em on Down” which is followed up with a mesmerizing cover of Charles
Singleton’s “Help the Poor”, first recorded by B.B King in
1964.
I highly recommend this
album, especially for fans of the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues.
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