Charlie Musselwhite from the album Mississippi Son

Charlie Musselwhite from the album Mississippi Son

Charlie Musselwhite (from the album Mississippi Son available on Alligator Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
‘It’s an attitude. A way of living life’. Those words are from Charlie Musselwhite, a bonafide Bluesman, logging six decades in the business of the Blues, releasing forty albums. Charlie Musselwhite is a master harmonica player and a truth-telling songwriter, his soul-baring vocals proof of his beliefs. Mississippi born, Memphis-bred, and schooled on the Southside of Chicago, Charlie Musselwhite has a lifetime of Blues in his pocket. His recent release, Mississippi Son, celebrates his return to his home state from Northern California, recording the album in Clarksdale, MS. A slow grooving, smooth rolling Country Blues opens Mississippi Son when Charlie Musselwhite honors the mighty Mississippi with “Blues Up the River”, the story tracing the path of the music from Memphis down to the Gulf.
 
Charlie Musselwhite packs history into “Blues Gave Me a Ride”, the tune a teachable moment that is part personal experience, part hard-worn advice. His harmonica duets with vocals when Charlie Musselwhite delivers “Stingaree” as he sways on a chugging beat for “Drifting from Town to Town”, plays a Blues shuffle for the tale in “When The Frisco Left the Shed”, and reads “The Dark” as campfire poetry. Adding to his prowess on harmonica and feel-me vocals, Charlie Musselwhite adds his guitarwork to the tracks of Mississippi Son, stripping “My Road Lies in Darkness” to just guitar and voice. Among the originals on Mississippi Son, Charlie Musselwhite covers influences with songs from Charley Patton (“Pea Vine Blues”), The Stanley Brothers (“Rank Strangers”), and John Lee Hooker (“Hobo Blues”). Nodding to Big Joe Williams, Charlie Musselwhite re-imagines “Crawling King Snake”, tributing Big Joe on the original instrumental, “Remembering Big Joe”, performing the track on his friend’s guitar.  (by Danny McCloskey)
 
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