featuring Davey Graham, Duck Baker, Sam Mitchell, Tom Paley, Mike Cooper
Originally released in the 1970s by Kicking Mule Records.
Track Listing: (click on tracks for mp3 sound samples)
Davey Graham:
1. How Come You Do Me Like You Do
2. I Just Want To Make Love To You
3. When I've Been Drinking
4. Panic Room Blues
Duck Baker:
5. Black Monk,
6. Always
7. Turnaround
8. The Clown
9. Forty Ton Parachute
10. The Stroll
Sam Mitchell:
11. Cat's Squirrel
12. Keep A Bootin'
Tom Paley:
13. Blake's Rag
14. Buck Dance
Mike Cooper:
15. Morning Star Blues
Review: Nearly thirty years ago, five pedigreed instrumentalists - three Brits, twoYanks - were handed an acoustic guitar and asked to individually proffer personal definitions of what it sounds like to be blue Their transatlantic Blues Guitar Workshop, once a vinyl source of divergent ideas on how to fingerpick "in and out of the box" has returned digitally. More often than not, each man dispenses; with their mic, instead preferring to speak solely with their hands So beware of Tom Paley the one-time New Lost City Ramblers who'll run you down with finger sprints dashing for the finish line of "Buck Dance" A similar warning goes for Sam Mitchell, whose bully of a bottleneck bulldozes"Cat's Squirrel" and then dishes out "Keep A Bootin" like London's answer to Kokomo Arnold. Mike Cooper's slide, however, downshifts into Delta time, with every slow slice shaving off curlicue whines to "Morning Star Blues." England's folk hero Davey Graham is the most vocal. Except for the wordless wonder of "Panic Room Blues," he sings and strings with gentle grace. But Duck Baker is the real rebel. By softening jagged edges and slowing - somewhat - any hairpin twists, both "Turnaround" and the equally woozy "Always" embrace a delightfully kinder version of the discordant music that pianist Thelonius Monk might have made had he reached for a guitar instead. – Dennis Rozanski/BluesRag
