GA20 with Charlie Musselwhite: Blues Now

The contemporary blues community is densely populated with posers long on affectation and short on authenticity. Not so GA20 or Charlie Musselwhite, for whom the blues speak truths that resonate in such a deep and abiding way, their respective musical expressions become truly personal statements. 

Boston-based trio GA20—fittingly named after a vintage Gibson amplifier—have always specialized in that genre style born in Chicago, so it only stands to reason—and suggests a certain level of destiny—that the group would collaborate with Charlie Musselwhite; having emigrated from Memphis by way of his home in Mississippi, the vocalist/harpist/songwriter cut his teeth playing with the likes of Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter.

Produced by band guitarist Matthew Stubbs, GA20 and Musselwhite recorded ten tunes in Cambridge, MA that comprise Blues Now. The sequence of selections runs the gamut from the primal likes of "Crazy Love" to the more insinuating doo-wop influenced "I'll Change My Style." And, in evidence of these musicians collective devotion to the blues—not to mention the elemental chemistry of the foursome—GA20's other fretboarder Cody Nilsen is no less credible in his vocal delivery than the elder statesman who wails with his voice as well as his harp on "I Can't Hold Out." 

And if there was any doubt about instrumental synchrony—or choice of material here—the ensemble takes only a little over two minutes to build up a bristling head of steam on slide master Earl Hooker's co-write with Junior Wells "Universal Rock." Even with so many cuts on the album relatively short—around the three-minute mark—the cumulative effect of Blues Now is sufficiently potent to turn its title into a veritable command.

Another tangible sign of the maturity shared by the principals here arrives in the form of an exquisitely haunting  bittersweet take on "Cristo Redentor." While the number works as a most effective closer to this roughly forty minutes, elsewhere in the midst of vintage compositions by Elmore James and Willie Dixon, Musselwhite's original "Strange Land" becomes a high-stepping ode to resolve mixed with a lust for life.

Such is the combination of lively action that suffuses Blues Now, that verbiage that might well serve as an accurate summary of this New West record.