Charlie Musselwhite - I Ain't Lying

Bitrate: 320K/s
Year: 2015
Time: 58:16
Size: 133,9 MB
Label: Henrietta Records
Styles: Blues
Art: Front

Tracks Listing:
 1. Good Blues Tonight - 4:05
 2. Cristo Redentor - 5:57
 3. Good Blues Tonight (Unedited) - 5:32
 4. Done Somebody Wrong - 4:18
 5. Long Lean Lanky Mama - 4:53
 6. Always Be My Friend - 3:31
 7. If I should have bad luck - 6:01
 8. My Kinda Gal - 7:41
 9. Blues Why Do You Worry Me - 5:00
10. 300 Miles To Go - 4:51
11. Long Leg Woman - 6:20

These days it’s acknowledged that Charlie Musselwhite is not only a maestro of the blues, but also its doyen. His longevity may be rivaled by James Cotton, Lazy Lester, and Billy Boy Arnold, and a few others, but his timing, tone, and taste are arguably nonpareil. Highly respected by his fellow musicians, he is also popular with fans, as attested by his 30 Blues Music Awards garnered from the Blues Foundation’s fan base. The quality of the albums he has been releasing on various labels for almost 50 years is consistently high; here is another that hits the mark. Partly recorded live at a festival in Sonoma, CA, in Sept. 2014 and partly laid down in a studio in Clarksdale, MS, the set comprises ten basic 12-bar tunes, all but one composed by Musselwhite, presented impeccably by the man himself on harmonica and bandmates Matt Stubbs on guitar, Steve Froberg on bass, and June Core on drums. (I specify Musselwhite’s concentration on harp because - unbeknownst to many - he also happens to be a skilled guitarist.) Most are mid-tempo, and they hew to a stable pattern: instrumental intro, vocal, harmonica solo, vocal, guitar solo, vocal, harmonica solo, end vocal and instrumental coda. In lesser hands the predictability could be tiresome, but this quartet keeps it fresh with its virtuosity. A pleasant feature of the set is the wry humor of many of Musselwhite’s lyrics. In “Good Blues Tonight” (a syncopated blues with Latino flavor, of which we get two versions), he sings: “I ain’t no doctor, I ain’t no doctor’s son, but I can ease your pain ‘til the doctor come; I ain’t no engineer, but I can drive your train.” Sexual double entendre is also featured in several other songs, particularly his apparent attraction to “long lean lanky” women; no big-leg women on this disc. The tough road of the blues is acknowledged; in one of the best tracks, “Blues, Why Do You Worry Me?” he intones, “If blues don’t kill me, I wasn’t intended to die.”
Throughout, Froberg lends solid but unobtrusive bass support, and Core provides a steady beat with mighty fine fills and flourishes. Stubbs dances up and down the guitar neck with a heady mix of single notes and chords, at times reminiscent of the late great Hollywood Fats and other times creatively original. Musselwhite handles the vocals adeptly with his trademark baritone interspersed with the occasional rasp and growl, supply sliding into some choruses just before or after the beat.
Oh, yeah: Charlie’s harmonica work. Well, let’s just say that he gets it right, moving from high to low register in dazzling runs of facility, flair, and emotion. Ironically, the only cut which didn’t enthrall me was the lone departure from the 12-bar format, a rendition of “Christo Redentor,” which he has recorded numerous times previously and probably played thousands of time live. He has delivered better versions, but that cavil hardly detracts from the value of the album.

I Ain't Lying