#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

 

 

#572 > GA-20 - Crackdown (PhillyCheezeBlues.Blogspot.com)

 

GA-20

Crackdown

2022 – Karma Chief Records

By Phillip Smith; Aug. 27, 2022

Original source : phillycheezeblues.blogspot.com

 

Last year, I heard GA-20’s attention-snatching tribute to the legendary bluesman Hound Dog Taylor, and I’ve been a fan of theirs ever since.  Consisting of guitarist Matt Stubbs, a fourteen-year veteran of Charlie Musselwhite’s touring band, guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, and drummer Tim Carman, GA-20 has been a force in the blues arena since 2018.  The trio’s latest record, Crackdown consists of ten all-original tracks seared to perfection with their raw, unbridled approach to the blues, and I absolutely love it.

From the beginning, I’m captivated by the blanket of fuzz and heavy bass forming the ominous landscape of “Fairweather Friend”.  Fueled by a driving rhythm and cast with a vintage sound, the song grabs ahold of me with a tight grip.  GA-20 calls back to the days of Howlin’ Wolf with “Easy on the Eyes”.  Steeped in swampy juke-joint blues and loaded with feral howls, the song is definitely one of my favorites.  The spirit of James Brown is summoned and cast into the funky title-track “Crackdown”.  If one can’t get down to this one, they’ve surely passed on to another plane of existence.  Short, sweet, and clocking in at just a bit over two minutes, “Double Getting”, is another cool-as-hell tune.  With a lively beat, it dances its way through rockabilly, surf-rock, and blues, culminating in retro-rock experience.

GA-20 continues to push the envelope with blues, all-while maintaining a high level of authenticity.  This is a band I really want to catch live.  I know it would be a great experience.    

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For more information about GA-20, visit this website : https://ga20band.com

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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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