Various Artists – Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound) (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Various Artists – Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 44:22 minutes | 541 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Easy Eye Sound

Thanks to Jon Spencer, The Black Keys and Fat Possum Records, the term “modern blues” is not an oxymoron. And as limiting as the blues genre may seem, there has always been a variety of sounds and styles within it, many showcased on this compilation. Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach—who operates the Nashville studio and record label Easy Eye Sound and has an ear for authentic musical talent—has assembled a multi-hued collection of recent electric blues numbers he’s recorded.

R.L. Boyce, a member of his uncle Othar Turner’s famed proto-blues Rising Star Fife and Drum Band (whose 1998 album Everybody Hollerin’ Goat is as traditional as it gets), sings the relatively quiet voice-guitar-drum “Coal Black Mattie.” Easy Eye’s very tall and nearly blind blues star Robert Finley—whose yowling mug graces the album’s cover—gives a typically forceful performance of the call-to-party, “Tell Everybody.” Auerbach’s own performance of “Every Chance I Get (I Want You in The Flesh),” which features a “Spirit in The Sky”-style fuzzed out guitar, is simple, low down and effective.

The sense of preserving and honoring the past is furthered by a pair of tunes recorded recently in mono, starting with Jimmy “Duck” Holmes doing “Catfish Blues.” That’s followed by a wonderful, pleading, reverb-assisted “Don’t Let the Devil Ride” by the late North Mississippi gospel bluesman Leo “Bud” Welch, who often played a hot pink Daisy Rock guitar. The Black Keys add their always distinct voice with “No Lovin’.” Finally, there’s this collection’s discovery, a pair of tracks from Ohio blues rock personality Glenn Schwartz, the original pre-Joe Walsh guitarist for The James Gang. Schwartz later began playing Christian rock in the All Saved Freak Band but here he sings and plays heavy, loud electric guitar on the pounding “Daughter of Zion” before switching to acoustic guitar and ending the album with “Collinwood Fire.” Blues fans have faith, the music lives on!

Tracklist:
1-1. R.L. Boyce – Coal Black Mattie (03:48)
1-2. Robert Finley – Tell Everybody (04:58)
1-3. Moonrisers – Tall Shadow (02:56)
1-4. Dan Auerbach – Every Chance I Get (I Want You In The Flesh) (04:01)
1-5. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – Catfish Blues (Mono) (04:10)
1-6. Gabe Carter – Anything You Need (03:46)
1-7. Nat Myers – Willow Witchin’ (03:09)
1-8. Leo “Bud” Welch – Don’t Let The Devil Ride (Mono) (02:45)
1-9. The Black Keys – No Lovin’ (04:17)
1-10. Glenn Schwartz – Daughter Of Zion (04:31)
1-11. Gabe Carter – Buffalo Road (02:58)
1-12. Glenn Schwartz – Collinwood Fire (02:58)

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