Bluesman Robert Johnson was murdered in Baptist Town, Mississippi, just north of Greenwood, in 1938 at the age of 27. The Mike Eldred Trio, consisting of two ex-Blasters and one Mike Eldred, a singer/songwriter of some repute, memorializes the event in “Somebody Been Runnin’.” Searching for his grave with his daughter, Eldred chanced upon Baptist Town (Great Western Recording Company), talked to the locals, went back home to Austin, wrote these songs, recorded ‘em at Sun Records in Memphis, and went out on the road. The trio has some friends: David Hidalgo of Los Lobos plays accordion and sings back-up on “Bess” (about “The Empress Of The Blues” Bessie Smith). John Mayer invited the trio to his Montana home studio where he added lap steel and electric guitar to “Roadside Shrine.” Robert Cray blisters some electric guitar on the title track. Poverty, racism, ignorance and hate are touched upon in the lyrics. Is it too early to call this an Americana Classic? Oh, they also inexplicably cover “Can’t Buy Me Love” by some British band that broke up 36 years ago.
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Daniel Hutchens—since 1994 as both Bloodkin’s frontman and now on a third solo CD, The Beautiful Vicious Cycle of Life (Pretty Mean Records)—writes the kind of songs that one of his obvious influences, Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt [1944-2001], would’ve been proud of (Steve Earle is another major influence). Filled with regret, staunch independence, longing, wanderlust and unforgettable characters, the new songs also share a musical affinity with another Texan who casts a long shadow, Alejandro Escovedo, in their Hard Americana flair. Hutchens, though, is from Athens, Georgia—yeah, B-52s territory—by way of West Virginia. There’s a touch of Southern Gothic that hovers over the proceedings like an old ghost (especially during “American Country Ghosts”) as if novelist William Faulkner started listening to Hank Williams (which I bet he did). Produced by Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools, some of the songs, especially opener “Jack Nicholson Grin” and the Springsteen-esque “Pretty Girls In Summer Dresses,” share a glad-I’m-still-alive sensibility. (There was a time when Hutchens might’ve easily succumbed to the constant altering of his consciousness.) He’s written over 500 such songs (some with Drive-By Trucker David Barbe). He’s shared stages with his friends in Gov’t Mule, R.E.M. (Mike Mills), Velvet Underground (Moe Tucker) and even beat poet Allen Ginsberg [1926-1997]. The Beautiful Vicious Cycle Of Life is smart, deep, rockin’ and totally groove-worthy.
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Solo Recordings Volume #3 (No Label Records) by Steve Hill sounds like a hard rock band but it’s a one-man band on guitar, bass and drums in which the Canadian busts out big-time on kickin’ originals and well-chosen covers of such beloved fare as “Going Down That Road Feeling Bad” (hippies will swear the Delaney & Bonnie version beats all others) and a mash of two great blues songs: “Rollin’ & Tumblin’ (Hambone Willie Newbern first recorded it in 1929, and Muddy Waters popularized it in 1950 before Cream, Johnny Winter, Canned Heat, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, Bob Dylan and Cyndi Lauper got their hands on it as well) and “Stop Breaking Down” (Robert Johnson’s 1937 original preceded versions by Sonny Boy Williamson in 1945, Buddy Guy in 1968, Rolling Stones in 1972 and Lucinda Williams in 1979). He also puts together two Muddy classics: 1947’s “Still A Fool” and 1950’s “Rollin’ Stone” (the song that gave Mick and Keith’s band their name). Between the crackling electricity on his guitar hero solos and the acoustic lovely side he also exhibits, Steve Hill is a band unto himself. I hear he tours standing up, playing guitar, his feet playing bass and snare drums, with a drum stick attached to the head of his guitar. Now that I must see!
