From the sound of the hypnotic recurring riff that propels the album-opening "On and on It Goes," the listener is assured that The Devil's Buttermilk is not your typical blues album and that Preacher Boy is definitely not your usual Telecaster-toting modern bluesman. With a guttural black-cat moan to match any death metal howler, Preacher Boy (born Christopher Watkins) sermonizes at the alter of hard knocks, reading from the good book of Muddy Waters and spreading the gospel of Howlin' Wolf. The Devil's Buttermilk, Watkins' fourth album, is lyrically populated with madmen and geniuses, drunkards and dreamers who pursue sin and salvation with an equal zeal. Watkins plays most of the instruments on The Devil's Buttermilk, mixing up thick, ominous, hard-rocking dirges with nightmarish, ethereal ballads, wielding the vivid imagery of his lyrics like a lightning strike, hitting the listener with thunderous tales of woe and redemption. Watkins crosses the traditional country blues of haunted legends like Robert Johnson and Son House with a modern, rock-influenced perspective similar to Jon Spencer or Jack White of the White Stripes, branding the sound with his own distinctive mark. With The Devil's Buttermilk, Preacher Boy stands apart from the legion of Stevie Ray Vaughan clones to blaze his own individual and original path toward the blues.
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