Monday, February 18, 2008

Review: "Doney Blues" by D. Johnson




If you ever wanted to hear Robert Johnson or Son House bring to life their immortal songs of the 20s and 30s, there is now a way to "time travel." Get "Doney Blues" (Indy, 2008) the new cd by D. Johnson. Put it on your cd player and and you're there. Johnson presents 32-20 Blues, My Black Mama, They're Red Hot, Doney Blues, Levee Camp Moan, Needed Time, Terraplane Blues, Pony Blues, That's Not Right, Crossroads, Death Letter, Kindhearted Woman Blues. (That's five Robert Johnson songs, four Eddie "Son" House songs, 2 originals, and one Sam "Lightning" Hopkins song if you're keeping track.) The singing and the playing make them all sound richly authentic and darkly honest--the songs don't sound old or stuffy and this is no museum set. These are just great songs done really well with great respect to the style of the original artists. There are few opportunities in blues to hear this kind of artistry, to enjoy traveling back in time. Mr D. Johnson, thank you for making a great cd of some of my blues heroes. Everybody go buy this cd, and go hear this man if he plays close by. You will not regret it. http://www.djohnsonblues.com

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