About 40 or so years ago, Marc Nerenberg excitedly
told me about Michael Browne, a 14-year-old blues prodigy in Montreal. Soon, at
a Sunday night hoot at the Yellow Door in Montreal, I heard him play and was
suitably impressed by his obvious technique in playing traditional blues. But,
as a much more mature 20- or 21-year-old, I wasn’t quite ready to take such a young
kid seriously as a bluesman. I remember a similar reaction when I first met Colin
Linden when he was 12 or 13.
Over the next years, I saw Michael play
from time to time in coffee houses and, more often, busking on Prince Arthur
Street or in the metro. It was obvious that both his technique and his
understanding of the traditions were continuing to grow quickly. About 30 years
ago, he began playing guitar and singing with the Stephen Barry Band – Montreal’s
finest electric blues outfit. By then there was absolutely no question about
taking Michael seriously.
With Michael continuing to develop as a
solo performer on the street and with his lead vocals a highlight of several
Stephen Barry Band albums, it was probably inevitable that he’d eventually get
around to recording under his own name and in 1998 – by then known as Michael
Jerome Browne – he released his self-titled debut. As I wrote in my Sing Out! magazine review, it was “an eclectic tour de force of various shades of
the blues with some equally accomplished side excursions into Cajun and
Appalachian music. Browne's soulful singing is matched by the depth of his
instrumental powers on various guitars, banjos and fiddles.”
Since that debut, Michael has released a
series of fine albums masterfully exploring a variety of traditional roots
styles including various blues styles, Appalachian folk songs, Cajun music, and
much more.
On Sliding
Delta, Michael returns to the kind of early blues that first inspired him
and it's a stunning selection of songs drawn from African American blues legends who
were all gone by the time he got started four decades ago. Except for the final
track, this is a purely solo album featuring Michael’s
vocals and instrumental virtuosity – mostly on guitar but occasionally on banjo
or mandolin or with added racked harp.
Without exception, I savored each of the 14
sublime performances, but a few of my very favorites include Mississippi John
Hurt’s “Sliding Delta,” performed on the 12-string with a natural ease that is
so reminiscent of Hurt himself; Memphis Minnie’s “Frisco Town,” a bouncy
blues on which Michael shows how terrific the blues can be when played on the
banjo; and Charley Patton’s “When Your Way Gets Dark,” on which he
demonstrates how beautiful the interplay between voice and slide guitar can be
on early Delta blues.
A couple of my other favorites – Henry Thomas’
infectious “Bull Doze Blues,” again played on the banjo (and it’s nice to hear
someone playing a Thomas song other than “Fishing Blues”) and Crying Sam
Collins’ “My Road is Rough and Rocky,” a variant of the better-known “Railroad
Bill” – are drawn from the songster tradition that knew no boundaries between
blues, folk songs, even early pop and jazz tunes.
 |
| Michael Jerome Browne, Mike Regenstreif & Eric Bibb (2005) |
After playing solo on the first 13 tracks,
Michael ends the album with a fine duet with the great Eric Bibb on “Choose
Your Seat and Sit Down,” a spiritual originally recorded in the 1930s by Dock
Reed and Vera Ward Hall.
Michael launches Sliding Delta with concerts here in Ottawa on Wednesday, January21, at Irene’s; and in Montreal on Saturday, January 24 at Petit Campus; and in
Toronto on Sunday, January 25 at the Rivoli.
Find me on Twitter.
twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif
And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif
And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif
--Mike Regenstreif
No comments:
Post a Comment