The
Blue Eyed Devils
The Legend of Shorty Brown
The
distinct immediacy in the southern blues tradition can
strike even the most hardened Yankee like a slap in the
face. The Blue Eyed Devils found an inroad to that tradition
in producer Jimbo Mathus' Shorty Brown Studio deep in
the wilds of North Carolina. Armed with peach brandy moonshine,
the boys took just three days and produced a valiant tribute
to the smoky downhome blues bands that have come before
them.
For
a bunch of white pickers from San Francisco, the Blue
Eyed Devils have a remarkable feel for the mournful howl
of the blues on these songs, recorded in the same purely
live fashion as field recordings of the original blues
legends. From the first delicate duet between Brendan
Wheatley's sharp harmonica and Chris Cotton's rough-voiced
wail on "Good Times," to the akimbo boogie of
the album-ending "Trouble," the ghosts of long-dead
bluesmen like Lightnin' Hopkins or Slim Harpo seem to
have haunted Shorty Brown's place for the Devils. In between,
Cotton and Wheatley trade off choruses on "I'm Movin'
Blues," "Bare Bones Woman Blues," and "3am
Blues." There's a lot of hurtin' to be had here.
Jimbo's
production (surely learned from his own experience with
the Squirrel Nut Zippers) also capitalizes on an atmosphere
where you can almost feel the sweat coming off the walls
and hear the scrape of fingernails on washboard and heavy
boots coming down hard on beaten plank floors. Something
has come out of the swamp and infected this disc. Beware,
beware.
S.
Clayton Moore
|