Jazz Articles

T-Model Ford: Bad Man

by Robert Jarovi
January 2, 2003

You know you're in for the real deal when 78-year-old James “T-Model" Ford shouts out the low-down truth. After a quick and dirty drum roll on this (studio) live set, he announces: “I'm a tail-dragger from Greenville Mississippi. I'm the boss of the blues. Can't read, can”t write, and don”t been to school a day in my life!" Guitarist/vocalist Ford and his drummer Spam are the only musicians on this disc, aptly entitled Bad Man, but they sound like a ...

Robert Pete Williams: Robert Pete Williams

by Alan Jones
September 1, 2001

The music of Robert Pete Williams does more beyond telling a chain of personal and fictional stories. His music, like the works of great literary figures, is a life-breathing, transcendental product of experience. He perfected the effects of escape and dark satire in his work, which often has an almost supernatural quality.

Williams met a temporary fate brought on by violence and implied jealousy. Forced to defend himself in a scuffle at a bar, the bluesman shot a man to ...

King Ernest: Blues Got Soul

by Ed Kopp
October 1, 2000

King Ernest Baker died in a car crash in Los Angeles on March 4, 2000, just a few days after he finished recording Blues Got Soul. His death seems all the more tragic when you hear the CD. Blues Got Soul is so deep-hearted, the singer would surely have landed more gigs and perhaps some real money from its release. Blues Got Soul is a moving collection of slow and mid-tempo tunes that hark back to classic songs ...

Dave Thompson: Little Dave and Big Love

by Ed Kopp
August 1, 2000

This Fat Possum re-release was originally distributed in 1995 but suffered from underexposure when the label's relationship with Capricorn dissolved. Blues fans will be glad Fat Possum decided to revive Little Dave and Big Love. The sucker really cooks.Mississippi native Dave Thompson's displays blazing guitar chops and Hendrix-style vocals on a solid set of blues-rock tunes produced by the late Robert Palmer. At the time the album was recorded, Thompson was a 24-year-old guitar phenom touted as the ...

Robert Belfour: What's Wrong With You

by Ed Kopp
May 1, 2000

Robert Belfour is a rare individual -- a country bluesman who grew up in the backwoods and taught himself the blues. His debut release What's Wrong With You is a powerful solo blues album that has garnered heaps of critical acclaim before it's even been released. (It comes out this month.)

While most contemporary country-blues artists are educated alchemists who combine different early-blues styles, Belfour is a throwback. His brand of country blues is characteristic of a particular place (the ...

Super Chikan: What You See

by Ed Kopp
February 1, 2000

You're probably dying to know how a dude comes by a nickname like “Super Chikan," so let's deal with that issue up front. When James Louis Johnson worked as a cab driver in Clarksdale, Miss., he became notorious for his lead foot. He acquired the nickname “Quick Chicken," which somehow got altered to “Super Chikan," and a new blues moniker was born.Nephew of bluesman Big Jack Johnson, Super Chikan is a lifelong resident of the Mississippi Delta who ...

Junior Kimbrough: Meet Me In the City

by Derek Taylor
November 1, 1999

With Kimbrough’s death in early '98 the blues world lost one its most uncompromising and idiosyncratic practitioners. All we’re left with now are posthumous collections like this one that out of necessity are forced to scrape the bottom of the corn liquor barrel for ‘new’ and releasable material. Though not imbued with the same level of quality as Fat Possum’s earlier Kimbrough compendium “God Knows I Tried,” the eight tracks included on this new compilation still offer plenty of Junior’s ...

Junior Kimbrough: Meet Me in the City

by Ed Kopp
October 1, 1999

Along with his neighbor R.L. Burnside, the late Junior Kimbrough may have been one of the last of the old-school Mississippi bluesmen. Kimbrough died of heart failure last year at age 67.A popular singer and guitarist in northeast Mississippi, Kimbrough turned his house into a juke joint that became such a hot spot he was forced to rent an apartment. The critic Robert Palmer featured Kimbrough in the film Deep Blues, which led to the bluesman's first and ...

Paul Jones: Pucker Up Buttercup

by Ed Kopp
October 1, 1999

R.L. Burnside’s Ass Pocket ‘o Whiskey was a college radio smash for Fat Possum Records, the Oxford, Miss., label that specializes in crude country blues. Paul Jones’ Pucker Up Buttercup seems directed at the same audience. Like most Fat Possum artists, Jones hails from the hills of northern Mississippi. His rugged guitar playing is heavily distorted on many of these tracks, and his singing is marked by a lot more attitude than on his widely praised debut Mule. The distortion ...

Asie Payton: Worried

by Ed Kopp
September 1, 1999

Asie Payton was a full-time farmer and part-time bluesman from Holly Ridge, Mississippi, who died of a heart attack at age 60 while driving his tractor. For two years prior to his death in 1997, Payton resisted overtures to record his music. Fortunately, however, he eventually consented to make two demo tapes for Fat Possum Records. Both brief sessions are reproduced on this excellent 10-track CD.If you're into eccentric Delta blues and don't mind a few contemporary touches, ...