Size: 123,2 MB
Time: 53:29
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2004
Styles: Modern Electric Blues, Blues Gospel
Art: Full
01. People Grinning In Your Face (3:57)
02. Finger On The Trigger (5:09)
03. Mean Things (6:17)
04. The Way I See It (0:37)
05. Walk On Water (4:49)
06. Go Away Devil (4:43)
07. Say My Name (4:44)
08. Take Me Back To The Country (1:00)
09. All In The Same Boat (4:10)
10. Living And Sleeping In A Dangerous Time (5:44)
11. Will I Ever Get Back Home Again? (4:21)
12. Cloud (3:10)
13. Sinners (4:42)
Skip McDonald's Little Axe returns for Champagne and Grits, and it could well be the band's finest, most expansive set yet. Little Axe's brand of blues-gospel-dub is probably the most interesting and adventurous of all the projects that attempt to infuse new life into the blues, and Champagne and Grits rivals their debut not only for an outstanding set of tunes, but for sheer sonic experimentation as well. Skip runs the show with plenty of help from producer Adrian Sherwood, and of course Doug Wimbish and Keith LeBlanc are on hand as well. The set starts with a pure acoustic blues, but then enters territory charted only by this band. It's still the blues, but there are gospel-flavored vocals, eerie harmonica, and fantastic dub elements all combined into a singular style. Disembodied vocals and sermons waft in and out of the ether, along with washes of electronica, soulful blues guitar, and wicked basslines. A couple of the tracks venture a bit further into reggae territory (with some help from Junior Delgado), but it still all feels bluesy despite the additional trappings. McDonald knows and respects the past, but he knows how to build on it, not enshrine it. Little Axe is the only band that does what it does, and does it brilliantly. Ancient to the future. Highly recommended. ~Review by Sean Westergaard
Thanks to Marc.
Champagne & Grits
Size: 111,7 MB
Time: 47:29
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2006
Styles: Modern Electric Blues, Blues Gospel
Art: Full
01. If I Had My Way (4:10)
02. Jive Talk (1:42)
03. Same People (3:53)
04. Rockin' Shoes (3:48)
05. Pray (2:54)
06. Prisoner (1:10)
07. Victims (4:38)
08. Let Me Ride (3:17)
09. Trouble In Mind (3:21)
10. Blueneck Dub (3:33)
11. Hard Times (4:21)
12. Almighty (3:41)
13. No Bottom (3:46)
14. She (1:54)
15. No More Mourning (1:14)
Little Axe is guitarist and singer Skip McDonald, but it's also much more than that. It is, in practice, a virtual reunion of the Sugarhill Gang -- the rhythm section responsible for the grooves underlying such paleo-hip-hop classics as "Rapper's Delight" and "White Lines" -- and therefore also a virtual reunion of Tackhead, the pioneering avant funk outfit that brought the Sugarhill Gang together with British producer Adrian Sherwood and vocalists Gary Clail and Bernard Fowler. In the Little Axe context, though, the focus is squarely on McDonald and on his overriding passion: vintage blues. Imagine a Delta blues aesthetic (spare, rural, and stark), and then imagine it thickened with additional instrumental layers and twisted with dubwise atmospherics, and you'll have some idea what to expect -- sort of like a posthumous collaboration between Howlin' Wolf and African Head Charge. The second Little Axe album features mostly McDonald originals, along with some well-chosen covers from the likes of Allen Toussaint, Skip James, and former Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun. But even his originals owe a deep debt to the work of his forefathers -- "If I Had My Way," for example, takes its whole chorus from the gospel classic "Samson and Delilah." Stone Cold Ohio is a real rarity: an album that can't be mistaken for anything other than blues, but that sounds nothing like any blues album you've ever heard. ~Review by Rick Anderson
Thanks to Marc.
Stone Cold Ohio