Friday, 19 December 2014

Record Review - Old Gray Mule

Published in the December 2014 issue of Rolling Stone (Aust.)

Old Gray Mule
Have Mercy
Cash Munkey Records

The sixth cut from Texan duo Old Gray Mule sees these purveyors of boogie blues in career-best form, their use of the repetition which defines the style (best practiced by the likes of RL Burnside and T-Model Ford) creating a pulsing, surging foundation from which the album builds.

Guitarist CR Humphrey and drummer JJ Wilburn also display a willingness to deviate on Have Mercy, bringing in Zydeco legend Rockin’ Dopsie Jr, whose frenetic accordion on ‘Ass On Fire’ is a masterstroke. Australians Dom Turner and Chris Parkinson feature heavily too.

Throw in a fuzzed variation on Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Child’ (‘Edge Of My Head’, replete with didgeridoo), and you’ve got an album which brings the blues to a new generation.
3.5/5

Samuel J. Fell





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