Featured artist: DELBERT MCCLINTON
The blues ballad is a fickle
beast. This deceptively simple musical mode is invariably where
the blues separates the men from the boys. All too often, would-be
bluesmen who are otherwise palatable become intolerable when they
try their hand at it; only the most skillful musicians can fill
the ballad's precious silence with meaningful, heartfelt sound.
These pretenders sometimes opt to play it safe by covering old
blues standards, not with the intent of reinterpreting, reinvigorating
and reinventing, but to avoid having to deal with material on
its own terms as the great pioneers did before them. It is their
inability to relate to a song's true emotional content (or finding
their own meaning therein) that makes them more likely to resort
to mimicry. They thereby become unwitting accessories to the embalming
process, turning the time-tested art form of the blues into a
muzak more appropriate to beer commercials and sitcom theme
songs. Unfortunately, artists for whom the blues is not merely
an inspirational strip-mine to be ceaselessly exploited are in
short supply.
That is why it is so refreshing
to discover a composition like Delbert McClinton's All There
Is Of Me. Apt pupil that he is, he has crafted a resonant
and relevant contemporary blues recording with the tools handed
down to him from his teachers. The clever, candid lyrics mark
him as a truly gifted storyteller. The masterful phrasing and
seasoned, soulful voice, convey that sublime sense of restrained
urgency that is so difficult to attain, and which all singers
should aspire to. The arrangement is relaxed; the notes falling
into place as if by chance, belying the outstanding musicianship
at work. This is one fine recording that Delbert McClinton has
bestowed upon the world.
Smooth, understated and eminently
listenable, All There Is Of Me is a quintessential blues
ensemble piece.
Listen
to Delbert McClinton's
ALL THERE IS OF ME.
**********
SIX DEGREES OF
BLUES: Conceived
and written by Emanuel Pordes
With
a curiosity that begins in the delta and extends to the stratosphere,
Emanuel Pordes is a blues lover for whom the addiction to 12 bar
has no downside. Where there's good blues to be had, whether it
be old, lost, neglected, co-opted, or buried under the charts,
that is where he likes to be. He
produced Six Degrees of Blues at WGRE 91.5
