“Musselwhite Releases a Gem of a Blues CD and “I Ain’t Lyin'”
BY PLAIN SENSE
NOVEMBER 14, 2015
As someone prone to hyperbole, or you might say my reviews tend to be on the manic side of No Depression, I will try and contain my glee over Charlie Musselwhite’s gem of a new CD “I Ain’t Lyin'” on Henrietta Records. The reason I love this CD and why it has been on constant rotation on my car’s CD player comes down to one word: Tone. This CD reeks of tone like the passenger compartment of a Rastafarian’s car on a long winter road trip.
The concept of tone has been expressed in different terms depending on the time frame and the genre (e.g. Duke’s lyricist Irving Mills “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing…” describing jazz or Arlester “Dyke ” Christian boasting “We got more soul…” in the early days of funk) it all comes down to the same thing, authenticity. It just doesn’t get any more authentic than blues professor emeritus Musselwhite on “I Ain’t Lyin'”.
Musselwhite takes the listener to school with this live set of all original material which is amazing in two respects. The sound is sooo good you would be hard pressed to guess it was cut in front of a live audience. No muddy instrumentation here. On the flip side, there is none of that “take 23” crap that tends to suck the life out of some studio performances. Instead, you get the best of both worlds, the spontaneous ambiance and energy of a live performance but with the impeccable sound of a studio recording. Kudos goes out to Gary Vincent, who took the live recording of Charlie and his band in Sonoma County down to his studio in Clarksdale, Mississippi to work his magic with stunning results. Click here to read more at No Depression’s website.