Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise
The former members of the Detroit alternative rock band Second Self were working  on demos for a new record deal in 1992 when they stumbled across a blind street singer a  few blocks from their studio. The young musicians were so struck by the older man's  raspy, booming, soulful voice that they invited him into the studio to record a few tracks.  The resultant quintet,Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surpriseis named after the veteran  busker and is dominated by his anachronistic, bluesy growl and his eccentric songwriting.  Like the late street-singer-turned-major-label artist Ted Hawkins, Bradley is not a blues  traditionalist. He loves the soul music of the '60s and '70s, but the experience of playing  that material on an acoustic guitar on sidewalks created a hybrid sound that's neither old  folk nor new pop. And when he started writing his own songs in this weird genre, he  came up with arrestingly personal testimony, like his plea to the "Governor" to turn his  electricity back on before the singer's woman walks out on him. Or his memories of his  youth "Once Upon a Time" when Marvin Gaye sang and the world was full of dreams  that slipped through our hands. Because Bradley's bandmates come out of a different  tradition, they avoid the usual R&B; clichés. They also provide surprisingly sympathetic,  admirably restrained backing to his peculiar vision.--Geoffrey Himes