Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Guy Davis – Fight On! True Blues Vol. 2
This set was recorded in 3 locations & summons the spirit of the past & how the blues were once presented. Unlike some of the modern-day blues, which are far more delegated at times (not always) through an entertainment focus. With over-amplified soaring notes & themes that have little & nothing to do with the genre. Ok, enough pontificating. These 3 musicians have enough expertise & skill & experience between them to have set down an undeniable blues pathway that penetrates the pores.
9 vibrant blues make up this fine set. It’s an expressive showcase captured & paid upon receipt between woofers, tweeters, & speakers. Some are traditional or interpreted by artists like Elizabeth Cotton, Charley Patton, Reverend Gary Davis & Fred McDowell. Collected by the trio of guitarists Harris, Hart & Davis on Fight On! True Blues Vol. 2 (Drops April 17/Yellow Dog Records/27:35)
It’s a short, concise showcase. It opens with both the vocal & guitar clarity of Corey Harris on “We Are Almost Down To the Shore (Fight On).” Sounds like a personal performance on a back porch between sips of lemonade & pinches of Beechnut on a humid Southern day. Cory’s voice is confident, with good phrasing & a colorful narrative with the kind of vocal accentuations pop singers don’t inject into their perfectly laid out vocals. It’s as pleasing as the early Columbia LPs of Taj Mahal. Rural, melodic, & dusty.
Bluesier is Charley Patton’s “Screamin’ & Hollerin’ The Blues,” with the authentic blues tone & hand percussion of Alvin Youngblood Hart. The attractions are the stripped-down rawness of how music was played decades ago, before technology enabled us to capture recordings in studios instead of hotel rooms, kitchens, or out in the field.
Darker & slower is “See Me When You Can,” an original by Guy Davis. It allows the past to linger on the tongue as Guy sings & stirs the lyrics through his fine narrative voice. Once again, a tinge of Taj Mahal’s early rustic style is secreted from “What’s That I Smell,” a Harris original. While not the Bob Dylan tune, but a 1959 Mississippi Fred McDowell piece,
“Highway 61,” is as classic a blues as it gets. It’s sticky with the geographical stretch of tar road; the lyrics ghostly translate raw & naked. Some songs don’t need beautification.
Highlights – “We Are Almost Down To the Shore (Fight On),” “Screamin’ & Hollerin’ The Blues,” “See Me When You Can,” “What’s That I Smell,” “If The Blues Was Money,” “Highway 61” & “Everything I Got Is Done In Pawn.”
Musicians – Corey Harris (6-string acoustic parlor guitar), Alvin Youngblood Hart (1950’s Kay Flat-top guitar – Sears Silvertone Branded) & Guy Davis (1960’s Harmony Stella 12-string, 1960’s Harmony Sovereign guitars).
B&W images courtesy of Corey Harris, Matt White & Martial Davis. CD @ Bandcamp & https://coreyharrisonline.com/ & https://ayhmusic.com/ & http://guydavis.com/wp/ & https://fliartists.com/artists/true-blues/