"Preachin' The Blues: The Music of Mississippi Fred McDowell"
Telarc CD-83536

By Arthur "LoveWhip" Shuey

This label specializes in releasing theme-based anthologies. Telarc has released records featuring a variety of artists doing the songs of Charley Patton and of Robert Johnson, songs about love and songs "for a rotten afternoon." In general, I do not care for this strategy, as it appears to be a tawdry, thinly veiled way to recycle recordings. In particular, I do not look forward to the planned April release of an anthology featuring several blues artists performing songs exclusively drawn from the Beatles' White Album. However, Preachin' The Blues, devoted to the music of Mississippi Fred McDowell, is an exception and a thoroughgoing pleasure.

These twelve songs share an emphasis on the greatest strength of pre-war blues, which is a natural sense of what blues is. They all build musical intensity and lyrical surprises on simple, familiar rhythms. That contrast between predictable, limited foundation and completely free, abstract top is what makes blues interesting to listen to, and brother, if you don't find good blues interesting, Preachin' the Blues is an ideal record to practice your listening skills on.

It's a consistent, comfortable listen. The twelve songs range from Dave Maxwell's instrumental piano take on "I Heard Somebody Call" to Charlie Musselwhite's understated vocal and guitar rendition of "61 Highway" to the full Colleen Sexton Band version of "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning." Like the song lists on other Telarc anthologies, this one is not actually limited to songs written by the named artist, in this case, Mississippi Fred McDowell, but instead broadens its offering to include songs known to have been central to the artist's oeuvre as well. Neither "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl(Sonny Boy Williamson I)" nor "I Rolled And Tumbled(Henry Sloan, as far as I know)" were actually written by Mississippi Fred McDowell, for example, but both are included on this record because they were undoubtedly known to, requested of and played by Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Preachin' the Blues has a lot going for it. It is a fine collection of songs performed by a fine collection of artists. Production is multi-dimensional and flawless. Buy it, buy it, buy it.