Almanac Music: Not Quite Bob – Blues, Differently – Little Axe, Otis Taylor,  Ben Harper, the Black Keys

Not Quite Bob – Blues, Differently – Little Axe, Otis Taylor,  Ben Harper, the Black Keys

 

I’ve decided to let myself off my own self imposed hook.  For now.  I’ve had a few pieces in mind to finish this series up.  Two of them were to be on Neil Young and The Band.  But it seems to me there is very little I could write on those icons that those who read these wouldn’t already know.  The one on Neil lies dormant, the file date is mid-September.  Old Shakey will have to wait.

 

These guys are very thin NBQ candidates but I’ve veered off course before and no-one seems to mind.  So, Blues.  But not from any of the giants most of whom pre-date Bob anyway.  These guys extend the traditions of the form set down by the earliest Blues artists, a folk based, music on the front porch style.  Acoustic guitars, percussion, stompin’ feet.  Made electric and presented to us via Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and all the Kings and then made different and vital again through these men.  Different instruments as well as the old ones, different recording techniques, loops, samples, a nod to other ancient forms like reggae and gospel and some hip hop beats for good measure.

 

The Blues.  Differently.

 

Little Axe

 

Little Axe is Skip McDonald.  Skip McDonald is Bernard Alexander.  Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1949.  His father was a steel worker who played Blues guitar on weekends.  He starts his career in 1973 with a band called Wood Brass & Steel that he forms with bassist Doug Wimbish (oh how I love that name) and drummer Harold Sargent.  A couple of albums then they break up in 1979.  McDonald and Wimbish become part of the house band for Sugarhill Records and appear as session musicians on many early rap and hip hop albums including those by Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang.  They later form a band called Tackhead and still later Wimbish is in the short lived but influential Living Color.

 

In 1993 McDonald adopts the moniker of Little Axe, re-unites with Wimbish and they start recording.  The first album Never Turn Back but it’s the following year when I first found them with The Wolf That House Built.

 

 

 

From there the opener, ‘Ride On’.

 

 

 

 

This sets the scene for a bunch of terrific records with Slow Fuse in 1996, Hard Grind in 2002 and Champagne and Grits in 2004.  A familiar pattern amongst many musicians – prolific at the start, most of your signatures created in the early going and then the pressure of repeating.  From Slow Fuse then, and from the session as above, ‘Storm Is Rising’.

 

 

 

 

The pre-recorded samples are an interesting feature as are the crack musicians that play with Little Axe.  It’s blues but it’s not, wears all of McDonalds influences and experience proudly and carries with it the stamp of original, unique.  When I included Jimi in an earlier piece I quoted a remark from a fan who felt that when he heard the maestro he thought he was listening to someone from the future.  These tracks from  Little Axe are nearly 30 years old but they still sound that way to me.

 

By the time of Champagne and Grits the sound is a little less avant garde though and he records a bunch of songs much more in keeping with the acoustic, on the front porch blues traditions.  I think it’s his best album.

 

 

 

 

He records up until relatively recently (London Blues in 2017) and is in demand as a session guitarist on a lot of artists work.  All the albums are worth a spin, check him out.

 

 

Otis Taylor

 

Born in Chicago in 1948 Otis Taylor grows up in Denver and starts his musical journey as a banjo player.  He later drops the instrument in favor of guitar and harmonica when his father tells him that white bluegrass musicians had adopted the banjo for use in minstrel shows.

 

He starts out in the Blues but, disillusioned, he stops playing in 1977 and becomes an antiques dealer.  He returns in 1995 unable to resist the lure of the music and the stage.  His first album is Blue-Eyed Monster in 1996 and the next year he releases When Negroes Walked The Earth.

 

Highly political, the blues at it’s earthiest, Otis sings of struggle and the downtrodden and finger picks a mean guitar.

 

 

 

 

White African is next in 2001 and the album titles that follow suggest Otis’ message.  This one from White African, ‘Resurrection Blues’ makes his point clear.

 

 

 

 

In 2008 he wants the banjo back where it started as an African instrument and records Recapturing the Banjo with an all star outfit including Alvin Youngblood Hart, Corey Harris and Keb Mo.  It’s a great record with lots of banjo featured songs.  A song called ‘Ten Million Slaves’ features in a film called Public Enemies and it’s hard to ignore this version featuring the extraordinary Anne Harris on violin.  In a set on yes, again, Tiny Desk.

 

 

 

 

It’s just a brilliant format the Tiny Desk series that perfectly captures a lot of NQBs.

The Otis Taylor album I first heard is this My World Is Gone in 2013.

 

 

 

 

A cracker from start to finish, still my favorite of his.  It’s songs talk about the oppression of First Nations Americans whose experiences at the hand of colonists sadly echo those of First Nations Australians.  Hmmmm.

 

Of interest to me is the introduction of trumpet into the mix and the songs do lope along in a jazzier mode.  For a long time ‘Hey Joe’ had been on Otis’ setlist and in 2015 he releases a stunning tribute to that great song (one not without it’s own controversy concerning the lyrics) with ‘Hey Joe Opus Red Meat’.  Whatever the hell that title means I don’t have the foggiest notion but a search of the Toob archives coughs up stacks of great renditions by Otis (not to mention squillions by others) not least this one featuring the beguiling Ms Harris again.

 

 

 

 

In 2017 Fantasising About Being Black is another ripper.  More Blues.  More Otis.  Singer, guitarist, banjo player.  His own take on the music of his heritage.

 

 

Ben Harper

 

In 1994 one of the presenters on RRR started playing the first album by Ben Harper.  A Wow moment.  Ben was born in Pomona, California in 1969.  A callow youth compared to most in this series.  His heritage is African-American, Native American, Russian/Lithuanian, a fascinating mix in the polyglot nation.  A settlers nation.  He starts playing instruments as young child and his early influences are Taj Mahal, Leonard Cohen, Robert Johnson and David Lindley.  A great place to start.  He self releases Pleasure and Pain in 1992 and then is signed to Virgin who then release Welcome To The Cruel World in 1994.

 

It’s an incredible record from a tyro and kudos to the Trip for getting behind it.  I think maybe it was Tracee Hutchison who kept playing it.

 

 

 

 

The unmistakeable highlight in an album full of them is this.  ‘Whipping Boy’.

 

 

 

 

Part of the fun of doing these pieces is spending a few days listening to old favorites.  Having Ben Harper on the playlist is a reminder of greatness.  In 1997 it’s ‘The Will To Live’.

 

 

 

 

In 2003 it’s ‘Diamonds On The Inside’.

 

 

 

 

There’s lots of them.  In 2004 he collaborates with The Blind Boys of Alabama on There Will Be A Light, a masterclass in soulful, churchy gospel singing.  Beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Ever the adventurer, Ben records often in various settings and often with his band the Innocent Criminals.  In 2013 though he’s hooked up with veteran Harp player Charlie Musselwhite with whom he records Get Up.  From there, this.

 

 

 

 

The old man, the young man.  Friends.  Respect.  Great rhythm section, great songs.  Awesome.  A collab with Ellen Harper (his mum), another with the Crims and it’s back to Charlie on No Mercy In This Land in 2018.  Juke Joint Blues.  Back to the roots.  In describing the music in interview Charlie says this.  “The Blues ain’t just sad. It’s your buddy when you’re up and your comforter when you’re down.”  That’s as good a quote on the form as I’ve heard.

 

Never better expressed than here.

 

 

 

 

In 2022 Ben has added to his great catalogue with a great concept album called Bloodline Maintenance where he reflects on his heritage and has put together a bunch of songs that to some extent swing back to Welcome To The Cruel World.  This track called ‘Problem Child’ harks back thematically to ‘Whipping Boy’.  Although certainly not in the arrangement.

 

 

 

 

Ben Harper.  Like the others above.  The Blues.  Differently.

 

 

The Black Keys

 

If I was doing a series on white boys playing (or attempting to play) the Blues then the series would last many, many months.  Some the purists hate, some who’ve earnt the respect of those who originated the form.  If the artists above reached into their own histories to find the inspiration for their version of the music these boys have knelt at the altar of the greats to create their own take on the Blues.

 

The Black Keys are Dan Auerbach on Vocals and Guitar and drummer Patrick Carney.  For a two man band they create a helluva racket.  They hail from Akron, Ohio and first emerged in 2001.  Their first album is called The Big Come Up and it’s influences are clearly on show.  The first song is an RL Burnside song and the next one is by Junior Kimbrough.  There’s a Beatles song on there too.  It’s all raw but good.

 

 

 

 

When I notice them though it’s on a track from their second album Thickfreakness.  ‘Hard Row ‘which owes more to Nirvana than the Blues but it’s good noise to hear.  Again RRR is on it.  Three cheers for them.

 

the Blues but it’s good noise to hear.  Again RRR is on it.  Three cheers for them.

 

 

 

 

They keep making records, some better than others, some more in keeping with the debut embedded as it was with the Blues, some not so much.  I think there’s something to be written about record company execs who have tried to smooth out the rawness of blues artists.  Recordings by Gary Clark Jnr come to mind.  A funny mixed bag of greatness and dross.

 

Anyway mostly good stuff from the Keys and then the breakout in 2011.  El Camino.  Weird video for ‘Lonely Boy’.  Great song though.

 

 

 

 

Lotsa good stuff on there.  ‘Gold On The Ceiling’.

 

 

 

 

But, but , but.  In 2014 it’s Turn Blue.  Joe Bob says that’s a No for me.  Move on.

 

With a couple of re-issues and more spottiness with Let’s Rock (2019) in 2021 they’ve worked their way back to the start with the mighty Delta Kream.

 

 

 

 

While since the earliest iterations they’ve toured with other musicians, here the fill-ins are in the fold on the record and live.  The album contains covers of delta legends.   None better than John Lee Hooker’s Crawling Kingsnake.

 

I’ve heard stacks of covers of that including by locals but this one is a great nod to a master.  I wish he’d got to hear it.

 

 

 

 

More of the same this year with Dropout Boogie.  Well worth an audition.

 

Is it Blues?  Authentic?  It is to my ears.  While homage is the plagiarist’s copout I don’t think The Black Keys can be so accused.  They listened, they learned, they played.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery sounds good but I think it withers on the vine of thoughtful analysis.  The rest of the Wildean aphorism is “… that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” The old Blues giants are indeed great but I don’t reckon The Black Keys are mediocre.  Maybe ‘Everything Old Is New Again’ fits better.

 

Just Blues.  Differently.

 

 

More from Trevor Blainey can be read Here

 

 

 

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