1. Crying Blues
2. Underground
3. J. Gilly Blues
4. Black Woman Gates
5. Tallahatchie
6. Fulton Blues
7. Devil Got My Woman
8. House Negro Blues
9. Black Rag
10. Catfish Blues
11. That Will Never Happen No More
12. Lynch Blues
13. Maggie Walker Blues
14. Fat Duck’s Groove
16. Better Way
16. Esta Loco
Corey Harris - Vocals, guitar, banjo
Joshua Achalam - Percussion
Hank Herrera - Harmonica
Ken Joseph - Drums
Jason Morgan - Bass
Chris Whitley - Keyboards
Gordon Jones - Saxophone
In The Blues Encyclopedia edited by Edward Komara and Peter Lee, Corey Harris was described in the following way: “Corey Harris’s music is
completely contemporary, reflecting a thorough knowledge of the complete American and African-American music spectrum”. In Fulton Blues Corey
Harris provides a “tour d’horizon” of the blues in its various forms and styles that have influenced him over his career.
As described by Bob Porter in his essay “The Blues in Jazz” printed in The Oxford Companion To Jazz edited by Bill Kirchner, he writes
“The blues is the music of Black Americans.…it is music that developed from field hollers, work songs, religious music and folk melodies.” Harris makes the
most of these characteristics and the twelve-bar-blue mode, starting off with Crying Blues which has a peppy horn-based drive over which Harris
sings with great effect. The Tallahatchie River is in the state of Mississippi and gained some notoriety in 1967 through singer Bobby Gentry and the tune Ode To Billie Joe. The following lyric explains: ”got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge/that Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the
Tallahatchie bridge.” Harris’ Tallahatchie is about the river and death but done in a rocking down-home blues style with the horns riffing in the
background.
The title-track Fulton Blues has Harris on guitar accompanied by Hank Herrera on harmonica and has a Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee feel. They follow
this up with Devil Got My Woman which has a different story line but with a similar approach that is more in the old storytelling blues tradition.
Saxophonist Gordon Jones lays down a solid solo on Catfish Blues, which rolls along with a repetitive refrain with Harris giving his electric
guitar a workout. Harris and Herrera hook again for another story blues in Lynch Blues which carries the line "what do I see hangin’ beneath the
tree/they want to hang you if you don’t bend at the knees.”
Corey Harris is an appealing performer who has both an appreciation and knowledge of the blues genre which he demonstrates with conviction throughout this
release.
Pierre Giroux
CD Reviews
Blues Boulevard 250360
