Just like its title,
Bill Sims' eponymous PBS / Warner Brothers debut is unpretentious and solid: it's this singer-guitarist's personal overview of the blues.
Sims' voice at its most soulful suggests a blues
Gil Scott-Heron or
Lou Rawls -- smooth, deep rather than flashy, and bittersweet. Some of his guitar solos somehow sound like that too. He transforms "Nobody's Fault But Mine" into a backporch banjo stomp, and tunes by
Big Bill Broonzy and
Charley Patton into shifty New Orleans second-line funk. He also breaks down a mournful version of
Howlin' Wolf's "Mr. Airplane Man," and brings onboard saxophonist
Chico Freeman to intensify the slow-burning R&B heat in "Smoky City." ~ Chris Slawecki