With 2010's The Well,
Charlie Musselwhite returned to Chicago's Alligator Records after a 14-year absence to release what was then his most autobiographical album to date. For over a decade he issued homegrown projects on his Henrietta label, including 2012's Juke Joint Chapel and two dates with
Ben Harper (2012's Grammy-winning Get Up and 2018's No Mercy in This Land). He cut the Grammy-nominated
100 Years of the Blues with
Elvin Bishop. All these records travel a labyrinthine path to
Mississippi Son.
Recorded in Clarksdale, Mississippi -- he was born in Kosciusko, and moved to Clarksdale after decades elsewhere -- it features eight originals and six covers offering a portrait of life as a bluesman. He leads a trio with drummer Ricky Martin and upright bassist Barry Bays on several tunes, while the rest is performed solo.
Musselwhite plays harmonica and sings, but for the first time since 2006's
Delta Hardware, he plays guitar throughout.
Co-produced by
Gary Vincent and wife
Henri Musselwhite,
Mississippi Son is humid and swampy, it rolls rather than rocks.
Musselwhite's guitar-playing style is reflected beautifully in opener "Blues Up the River" -- loose, slippery, and subtle. Things get a bit woolier on a reading of
Yank Rachell's "Hobo Blues."
Musselwhite reflects
John Lee Hooker's immortal version with a simmering, sinister, groove. "In Your Darkest Hour" is a paean of personal redemption via the power of love, offered solo to an individual during a time of difficulty. He lightens the mood for "Stingaree," another solo track. His road-weary baritone flows atop harmonica and guitar lines, expressing his devotion to the beloved: "She might not sting for you/but she's always buzzin' me...." On the solo instrumental "Remembering Big Joe,"
Musselwhite plays the guitar of his late friend,
Big Joe Williams, and renders two sides of the Delta blues in his choogling read of
Charley Patton's "Pea Vine Blues" with the band, and a sensual version of
Hooker's immortal "Crawling King Snake."
Musselwhite is a canny songwriter, able to relate his entire autobiography in a two-minute, shuffling, electric country blues. The band grooves under one of the most poignant lines in this history of blues poetry: "Blues tells the truth in a world that's full of lies...." He counters with the shadow side of that identity on the harrowing "My Road Lies in Darkness," and pulls out a slide for a deep blue read of the
Stanley Brothers' high lonesome folk song "Rank Strangers." Closer "A Voice Foretold" is a haunting blues spiritual written by playwright/lyricist
Lee Breuer and pianist/composer
Bob Telson for their play The Gospel at Colonus. It's a prophetic look into the face of death and doesn't flinch. In his laconic Southern drawl,
Musselwhite sings with acceptance, placing his hope in a loving, merciful God. The bookend to the journey he began with
Delta Hardware,
Mississippi Son is an unromanticized testament to living the blues and sounds like it came from the soil. As such, it's a late-period masterpiece. ~ Thom Jurek