Blues suede tunes…
Backporch blues are played by guitarist Brandon Hudspeth as he is joined by the avuncular vocalist/percussionist Jaisson Taylor for a collection of folksy picking and grinning. Hudspeth has a cozy slide sound on “Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home” while giving a calliope of a feel on the rural “Lonesome Home Blues”. Taylor has a hint of Muddy Waters in his style, as on “Blues In The Bottle” and feels at home on “I Can’t Be Satisfied” while giving a bona fide gospel feel to “Run Sinner Run” and “You Gotta Walk That Lonesome Valley. Red clay in the fingernails.
William Lee Ellis sings with a leathery voice and plays a wide variety of banjos and guitars on this collection of traditional tunes. He mixes and matches the accompaniment, with some help from Steve Feinbloom/b, Neil Rossi/fid, Tom Cleary/p and others. There are some Bartokian strings on a haunting “Earth and Winding Sheet” while things get bluegrassy on “Mumblin’ Word”. Ellis does some nice fingerwork on “Goat Island” and “River of Need” and the strings chime on “All For You”. Homespun threads.
Playing guitar and with an upbeat tenor voices, JW Jones brings together Gordie Johnson/key-b-dr-g, Eric Eggleston/voc-g-perc and a slew of guests for an album filled with easy rocking in the vein of the Doobie Brothers. Jimmie Vaughan brings in his ax for a nifty solo on the shuffling “Take Your Time” , and Rob McNelley rocks easy on My Luck” The Texas Horns get STAXY for “When You Left” , and there’s lots of grit to the feel to the funky “Good To Be True”. Clean swamp.