Mama Says I'm Crazy
Singer-guitarist Fred McDowell was a giant of the blues who'd spent much of his life pumping gas. Johnny Woods was a scrapper who somehow cobbled out a living between gambling and drinking and playing harp. On these recordings, made in backwoods Mississippi shacks in 1967, the two bluesmen mix with primal authority. McDowell sings about love, hard times, and madness with unbridled passion as he pumps his slide 'n' drone acoustic guitar with rock & roll thrust, and Woods adds hand-muted cries and commentary that's raw as a skinned weasel. Picking out the African cadences of "Red Cross Store" or batting out their local juke-joint "hits" like McDowell's "Shake 'Em On Down," the duo blend the sloppy energy of pure feel with bursts of honed virtuosic precision. The result is blues music that not only cuts to the bone, but slices through it. Whether they're stomping out a powerhouse "John Henry" or slowly tugging every teardrop from a heartbreaker like "I Walked All Night Long," their playing here is as addictive as moonshine.--Ted Drozdowski