Whereas most music is about entertainment, and some may also seek to inform to, Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues is something else entirely. Of course, as an album, it ticks both those boxes easily and eloquently, but it is also more of an ethnographic record, a historical archive of early blues than just another album. We used to call these long-platers Records, this is a record in every sense of the word.
Just as Cecil Sharp traveled the rural landscape of England collecting late Victorian folk and dance music before it was lost to time, Terry Blade has put together an album that keeps the soul of early blues alive and is interspersed with recordings of those on the scene talking about what the blues means to them.
And so, Chicago Kinfolk: The Juke Joint Blues sees Blade authentically capturing, for posterity, the classic sound and sense of early blues through music, albeit with a modern vibe deftly woven through and an authentic collection of voices. He takes the classic songs of the likes of Theresa Needham (The Godmother of Chicago Blues), Muddy Waters Jr., Jimmy Walker, Lefty Dizz, and Willie Monroe and gently reworks their music for a new audience, but authenticity and celebration of the original is paramount.
The highlight for me is his take on Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s Alright,” a song that reminds us of just how music blues is responsible for the modern pop age; I suspect more people are aware of Elvis Pressley’s rocked up rendition than the emotive original to which this is a tribute. But then things round with “Fallen Sons,” a heart-aching working song that reminds us of the crucible of pain and suppression that the blues was first forged in.
I normally end a review by saying something like, “What a great album; you should buy it.” Here, I say, you MUST buy it. It is not only a great album for blues and non-blues fans alike but also an important document, especially in light of how electrified, overplayed and ornate blues later became. This is the authentic sound of blues in its pure form, and Terry Blade is the real deal.
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