In the Natural State
Arkansas, home to ex-Nighthawks guitarslinger Jimmy Thackery and his friends and guests Earl and Ernie Cate (guitar and keyboards, respectively), is nicknamed "the Natural State." But the natural state for these three musicians is really somewhere between traditional blues fervor and knuckle-busting guitar hypnosis. This disc kicks in with the latter: "Out of Mississippi" is a big-bottomed, blustery riff-fest. Yet two tunes later they're adopting Muddy Waters's "I Got a Rich Man's Woman." Thackery's slide whinnies with a sensitivity near the old master's as the Cates paste down a powerhouse Chicago shuffle. And so it goes, ricocheting between the past and present. They summon the spirit of fellow Arkansan Junior Wells in "Snatch It Back and Hold It" and "Hoodoo Man Blues." But the most emotional number is Thackery's flood ballad "Levee Prayer," which is all restraint and subtle six-string colors until the finale, when his dark-toned solo enters like inexorable waters to claim the song. The disc ends with Thackery's "Tell Me Goodbye," a paean to '50s sock-hop rock that's got a chordal guitar break as sweet as his innocent lost-puppy-love lyrics.--Ted Drozdowski