2019 – Big Legal Mess
Records
By Phillip Smith; March 2, 2019
The
Music Maker Relief Foundation, whose mission is “to preserve the musical traditions of the South
by directly supporting the musicians who make it, ensuring their voices will not
be silenced by poverty and time”, is issuing a new book and CD package
called Blue Muse to celebrate their twenty-fifth
year. According to their website,
musicmaker.org, this organization, founded by Timothy and Denise
Duffy, has helped with over 12,000 grants, and has supported 435 artists. Blue
Muse contains twenty-one tracks of southern blues and roots music from various
artists. It features recordings made from
the nineties up to the present day, with tracks contributed by both Taj
Mahal who beautifully performs “Spike Driver Blues” and Eric Clapton
who joins with Timothy Duffy for a sweet instrumental cover of Willie
Brown’s “Mississippi Blues”.
Eddie
Tigner who played many years with the Ink Spots and
was at one time the lead of Elmore James’ house band, tears it up on
piano with his performance of “Route 66”. When Alabama Slim kicks off “I
Got the Blues”, it puts a big smile on my face.
His hypnotic guitar stylings pull me deep into the song. The soulful deep-cutting vocals of Robert
Finley marvelously sing out on “Age Don’t Mean a Thing”. With Jimbo Mathus on guitar and Al
Gamble on keys, this is southern soul at its best. Former Carolina Chocolate Drop co-founder
Dom Flemons breaks out his harmonica and sings “Polly Put the Kettle On”. Ben Hunter appears on fiddle and Guy
Davis on guitar, making this traditional song also covered by the blues-great
Sonny Boy Williamson, a delightful listen.
One can feel the blues in the voice of the late great
Piedmont Blues artist Algia Mae Hinton, who passed in February of 2018, as
she delivers “Snap Your Fingers”. Guitar
Gabriel’s “Landlord Blues” oozes with authenticity. ‘The Blues Doctor’ Drink Small from
Columbia, South Carolina wonderfully sings and picks “Widow Woman”, a melancholy
and reflective piece paying homage to those who have lost their husbands.
This collection also contains “I am the Lightning”
from one my recent favorites, Willie Farmer whose latest album, The Man From the Hill was reviewed on my
blog last month. This is such cool song.
I was also happy to see Ironing
Board Sam’s “Loose Diamonds” appear on this album too. His CD, Super
Spirit, which this track is from, was one of my memorable finds in 2018
while visiting one of my favorite stores on the planet, Cat Head Delta Blues
& Folk Art in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Available by March 28th, 2019 , Blue Muse is also paired with a
powerful 152 page companion book titled Blue
Muse: Timothy Duffy’s Southern Photographs, published in association with
the New Orleans Museum of Art, and loaded with tintype photos taken by Duffy
of musicians representing American roots music.
For more information or to purchase this set, visit musicmaker.org .
