What's Wrong With You
Perhaps if Robert Belfour had been born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, or Madison, Wisconsin, he would be still playing the exact same music. But somehow, it just seems impossible. Born and raised in the hill country of north Mississippi, Belfour plays the pulsing, insistent style of blues boogie that is a birthright of all those born in and around his Holly Springs hometown. Because this droning style leaves out well-developed melodies and chord changes, it is reliant on two primal factors: rhythmic drive and deep emotional investment. Belfour's music has both qualities, and his supple, lively guitar work is the perfect foil for his intensely passionate, moaning vocals. Now, a 60-year-old veteran of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene, Belfour releases this head-turning debut, which brings to mind the unflappable groove of fellow MississippianJohn Lee Hookerand the intensity of TexanLightnin' Hopkins. While Belfour may have digested the music, culture, and collective soul of his native soil, his blues, like that of any bluesman worth a damn, is uniquely his own.--Marc Greilsamer