Shackbreakers

IN the 1960's, many folk singers were drawn to the ragtime- style, seemingly relaxed Piedmont country-blues. They would have learned quite a bit from the performances by John Cephas and Phil Wiggins over the weekend at the Alternative Museum.

Without raising their voices or punishing their instruments, the duo showed just how much feeling the Piedmont blues can hold.

On Sunday, every song was an intricate tangle of melodies. While Mr. Cephas plucked syncopations on the guitar - bass lines with his thumb below twangy, finger-picking riffs - he sang in shifting counterpoint with Mr. Wiggins's harmonica lines. It was smooth yet volatile; a pause or a sudden accent could completely change a well-worn blues lyric.

Mr. Wiggins's harmonica can evoke an oom-pahing accordion or a clarinet, as well as train whistles and hoot owls, but even his most virtuosic playing served to enfold Mr. Cephas's warm, deep voice. Mr. Cephas's gentle singing, particularly in his desolate slow blues, suggested the calm of a man at peace with mortality.

More - New York Times

Comin’ a Time is an 18-track tribute to the
Piedmont style of blues as performed by longtime blues scholar and musician Eleanor Ellis. She covers Skip James, Memphis Minnie and Kansas Jack, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Boy Fuller, Sleepy John Estes, and others in her heartfelt and well-rendered versions of blues classics learned in her travels and in the barbershop of Archie Edwards. Edwards was a teacher, barber, and bluesman who became close friends and performing partners with John Hurt and Skip James during their last days in Washington, DC. On Saturdays his barbershop became a blues house where local and traveling blues musicians would drop in to jam and tell stories. Ellis was a regular at the Saturday jam sessions, and after Edwards died she helped establish the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, dedicated to preserving the musical heritage of the Piedmont Blues. This style, also known as East Coast blues, started in the area between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Appalachian Mountains from central Georgia to central Virginia. The Piedmont guitar style combines intricate finger picking with a regular, alternating thumb bass line. There are some great tunes on this CD. Being a big fan of Skip James, I’m especially partial to track 3, “Cypress Grove,” and track 15, “Special Rider.” The bones, as played by Richard “Mr. Bones” Thomas, make the Sleepy John Estes song “Diving Duck” a personal favorite, and who doesn’t like a good version of Jim Jackson’s “Kansas City”? Fact is, Ellis does a fine job on all the tracks on Comin' a Time.

- Victory Review - Acoustic Music Magazine

http://www.eleanorellis.com/assets/reviews/bluesnews_apr_08.pdf - Acusticher Blues