Durham County Poets – Grimshaw Road

DURHAM COUNTY POETS

Grimshaw Road

durhamcountypoets.com

Ormstown, Quebec, a small town in the Chateauguay Valley about an hour or so southwest of Montreal, has a music scene that is seemingly out of proportion to its size and the finest band to come out of that scene is the Durham County Poets, a five-piece unit whose mostly original repertoire encompasses such styles as folk, blues, rock, swing and gospel – often mixed and matched within the same song.

I quite liked the Poets’ first two albums. Both Where the River Flows, released in 2012, and Chikkaboodah Stew, from 2014, were full of good songs and fine performances. But, their brand new release, Grimshaw Road, is their best yet. With more than five years of performing together, they’ve really gelled as a band and their songwriting – each of them contributes or collaborates – is stronger than ever.

The band is fronted by lead singer Kevin Harvey, a naturally laid back vocalist who nails the essence of whatever song he’s singing, bringing it to life in a way that serves the music and, particularly, the lyrics. He’s well supported by guitarists David Whyte and Neil Elsmore, bassist Carl Rufh and drummer Jim Preimel. Several of the band members occasionally double on other instruments and there are some guest musicians on some tracks including producer John McColgan on percussion and veteran Montreal saxophonist Jody Golick.

The album opens with the band in blues mode on “Grimshaw Road,” in which the singer relates a late-night encounter with the devil. It sounds like it could be an encounter like Robert Johnson’s mythologized visit to the crossroads, but the narrator here hears the sound of a heavenly choir and is guided away by an angel.

A few of my favorite songs on the album include the contemplative “Streets and Sidewalks,” which is reminiscent of early James Taylor; the infectious “Monday Morning,” a swinging blues about a workingman starting his week; the jazzy “Bowl Full of Lazy,” which sounds like it could have come from one of Tom Waits’ early LPs; and “Outside Cat,” a jump blues that could be taken literally as a description of an actual cat prowling the neighborhood or metaphorically as a hipster description of someone living by his own rules.

In addition to the original material there are two songs not written by members of the Durham County Poets. Both are great performances and both feature guest vocalists in duet with Kevin. On a beautiful version of the late Penny Lang’s “Diamonds on the Water,” they are joined by Michael Jerome Browne (I presume this is one of the songs they’ll perform on June 15 at the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal’s tribute concert to Penny) and their version of Blind Willie Johnson's “On Your Bond,” with Suzie Vinnick, comes from deep in the gospel well.

One minor complaint: The CD digipac and lyric booklet feature black-and-white photos – which I quite like – but the lettering for the credits and lyrics are in white and, unfortunately, white lettering on a black-and-white background is frequently difficult to read.

Among the stops on the Durham County Poets’ series of album-launching concerts is a show here in the Ottawa area on Friday, June 16, 8 pm, at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – God Don’t Never Change; Mr. Rick Sings About God + Booze

VARIOUS ARTISTS

God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson

Alligator Records

alligator.com

Like many, my first exposure to Blind Willie Johnson was via his recording of “John the Revelator,” included on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, a monumental collection of recordings from the 1920s and ‘30s that was so influential on the generations of folk-rooted artists that came to the fore in the 1950s, ‘60s and beyond. The artists on the Anthology – including Johnson – are the anchor of what Greil Marcus has termed the “old weird America.”

Johnson could have been one of the deepest sounding of the early bluesmen but was devoutly religious and only sang the gospel and spiritual songs he wrote or adapted from earlier sources. He recorded 30 tracks in all between 1927 and 1930 when the Great Depression effectively killed his recording career – the 2-CD set, The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (Columbia/Legacy) is highly recommended – but many of those songs have become standards of revival folk and blues artists from Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul & Mary to Eric Clapton.

God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson is a set of 11 of Johnson’s songs performed by an interesting group of contemporary artists.

Tom Waits – whose voice on some of his later recordings seems almost genetically descended from Johnson’s – leads off the set with a compelling version of “The Soul of a Man,” that is built on a sampled guitar track taken from a field recording of Smith Casey recorded by John Lomax and featuring Waits’ wife, Kathleen Brennan, on background vocals and their son, Casey Waits on drums. Waits returns later in the album with “John the Revelator.”

Lucinda Williams, who has a deep understanding of traditional southern music running through much of her own music, also turns in effective performances on two songs: “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” and the title track, “God Don’t Never Change.”

Interestingly, the only African American artists on the album, the Blind Boys of Alabama, turn in the single performance that seems least influenced by Johnson. Their infectious version of “Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time” is done in their time-honored style reflecting the religious joyousness that is always at the heart of their performances.

Among the other highlights are the call-and-response version of “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning” by Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi; a deeply felt rendition of “Light from the Light House” by Maria McKee; and a subdued, thoughtful reading of “Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground” by Rickie Lee Jones that effectively brings in a New Orleans-funeral-style horn arrangement near the end of the song.

MR. RICK

Mr. Rick Sings About God + Booze

mrrickmusicamericana.com

One of the Blind Willie Johnson standards not included on God Don’t Never Change was “You’ll Need Someone on Your Bond.” However, Mr. Rick – a.k.a. Rick Zolkower – does a nice, rockabilly-flavored version on Mr. Rick Sings About God + Booze, a mostly upbeat collection of traditional and contemporary Saturday night and Sunday morning songs.

Mr. Rick and his musical friends draw on all manner of roots styles in creating irresistible versions of such God songs as “Hush,” Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “One Kind Favor,” and “I’ll Fly Away,” and such boozers as Eric Von Schmidt’s “Champagne Don’t Drive Me Crazy,” Sleepy John Estes’ “Liquor Store Blues” and Mr. Rick’s own “Don’t Put My Bourbon Down.”

Perhaps my favorite track is “Two Little Fishes,” a biblical story song I first heard sung by Josh White, that takes on a klezmer feel thanks to Jono Lightstone’s clarinet playing.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Eric Bibb -- Booker's Guitar

ERIC BIBB
Booker’s Guitar
Telarc
ericbibb.com

Three years ago, I wrote in the Montreal Gazette, that if there’s a more inspiring, or inspired, acoustic blues artist than Eric Bibb working today, I’ve no idea who it might be. Eric’s magnificent singing, his deft guitar work and his original songs can’t help but make anyone feel better about life.

I still think that.

Eric’s new album, Booker’s Guitar, is a back to basics set. Of the 15 songs, six feature Eric playing solo. The superb harmonica player Grant Dermody is the only other musician on the other nine songs – and, boy, do I like hearing Eric in this context. Thirteen of the songs are Eric’s originals, all steeped, some way or another, in the folk blues tradition. He also does superb versions of “Wayfaring Stranger” and Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.”

The album opens with the title track, a partly-spoken, partly-sung piece inspired by Delta blues pioneer Booker (Bukka) White and by Eric’s getting to play a National steel guitar that had been owned by him. Eric plays the guitar on the track. (A personal reminiscence: In 1974, as a 20-year-old stage manager at the Mariposa Folk Festival, I got to meet and work with Bukka White, who, by the way, was an older cousin and guitar teacher of B.B. King. He died just a few years later.)

Speaking of B.B. King and his connection to Bukka White, Eric includes a new version of “Tell Riley,” a song he wrote about King’s early days that mentions White. Eric first recorded it on Natural Light, another great album.

Among my other favourites – truth be told, every song is really a favourite – are “Flood Water,” about the legendary Mississippi River flood of 1927 (which has so many parallels with the Katrina flood of 2005); “New Home,” which musically or lyrically evokes “Alabama Bound” and “Michigan Water Blues,” both done back in the day by Jelly Roll Morton; “Walkin’ Blues Again,” a song inspired by the use of music by the early blues musicians to cope with the overt racism and exploitation they faced. Obviously, from the song title, there’s a nod to Robert Johnson’s “Walkin’ Blues.” There’s also a great verse inspired by “John Henry”; and, “Turning Pages,” about the joys of reading books.

As I mentioned, the only other musician is harmonica master Grant Dermody. Grant’s playing is always creative – I especially like his use of chromatic harmonica on “Flood Waters” – and complements Eric’s singing and playing beautifully. Eric and Grant’s playing together is some of the finest guitar-harmonica duo work since Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were in their prime.

--Mike Regenstreif