Front Porch Blues
An elder statesman of Piedmont blues, John Jackson didn't get much exposure outside of his home state of Virginia until the folk revival of the 1960s swept him up. His music is an appealing mix of Piedmont-style blues, Appalachian folk, and an assortment of dance music; he moves from the ballad of "Railroad Bill" to the traditional "C.C. Rider" to the pensive "Louisiana Blues" to the devotional "When He Calls Me." The most striking track on this album, though, is "Death Don't Have No Mercy," which starts off dark and melancholy and progresses to downright scary. It's all, indeed, the sort of thing one could easily imagine hearing on the front porch of a southeastern house, complete with the Appalachian chain in the background.--Genevieve Williams