Archive Review: Garland Jeffreys' The King of In Between (2011)

When he is remembered – if he is remembered at all – Brooklyn, New York born-and-bred singer/songwriter Garland Jeffreys is fondly recalled for either his 1973 FM radio hit “Wild In the Streets” and/or his lively remake of the garage-rock classic “96 Tears,” which brought Jeffreys his highest chart position and best-selling album in 1981’s Escape Artist. Part of Jeffreys’ obscurity is due to his intelligent, challenging lyrics, which often deal with urban life, racial strife, and other heady subjects set to music that cleverly welds streetwise rock ‘n’ roll with elements of blues, jazz, folk, and reggae.

After recording ten albums between 1970 and 1997, Jeffreys literally disappeared from the U.S. music landscape, instead traveling frequently to Europe where much of his back catalog remains in print, performing for a growing and appreciative audience. With The King of In Between, the 67-year-old musician has released his first album in better than 13 years, picking up almost exactly where he left off in the late 1990s. Jeffreys’ whipsmart lyrical observations on life in the Big Apple and beyond lack none of the bite of his earlier work, while the music on The King of In Between is every bit as eclectic and entertaining as ever.

“Coney Island Winter” opens with shimmering guitar and a deep rhythmic groove, Jeffreys’ half-spoken/half-sung words mesmerizing in their impact and intellectual depth. The funky “Streetwise” offers up haunting vocals, lush strings, and Larry Campbell’s imaginative fretwork while the rollicking “The Contortionist” features Lou Reed providing doo wop vocals behind Jeffreys’ pleading voice. The bluesy “‘Til John Lee Hooker Calls Me” is a sprawling boogie-rock tune that name checks Hooker, Bo Diddley, and James Brown while also evoking Elmore James.   

While not a conventional blues album per se, The King of In Between will appeal to blues and rock fans alike, Garland Jeffreys’ unique, eclectic sound a welcome antidote to music that too often draws from the same deep wellspring instead of painting with the entire bright spectrum of colors you’ll hear on The King of In Between. (Luna Park Records, released June 9th, 2011)

Review originally published by Blues Revue magazine, 2011

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Archive Review: Various Artists - Jail House Bound (2012)

John Avery Lomax, and his son Alan, hold a singular place in the history of the blues. When the elder Lomax’s career as a bank executive went south during the Great Depression, the 64-year-old music enthusiast decided to follow his passion as a collector of what were then known as “folk songs,” including African-American spirituals and blues music. Signing a contract with a publisher to compile a book of folk songs, and working with the Library of Congress to record authentic performances as a living documentary, Mr. Lomax and son went about changing the course of American music.

To document the purest form of the African-American folk song, performances untarnished by radio, records, or the creeping influence of Anglo culture, the Lomaxes traveled to the prison farms of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Lugging around a 300-pound cylinder recorder in the trunk of their car, the pair captured for posterity the voices of unremarkable men often imprisoned for the slightest of offenses. While many of the performances that can be found on Jail House Bound have been available in various formats since their original 1933 recording, never before have they been presented in as scholarly a form as this release by the West Virginia University Press.

Because of the primitive technology used, there’s only so much that digital mastering can do to make antique cylinder recordings presentable, but Jail House Bound makes a valiant effort. While Southern prison recordings are admittedly an acquired taste shared by few blues fans, there is a lot of great music to be heard here nonetheless. Moses “Clear Rock” Platt’s reading of “That’s Alright Honey” sounds like a 1950s-era R&B hit, while Ernest “Mexico” Williams does an admirable job with the standard “The Midnight Special.” James “Iron Head” Baker and a couple of other convicts bring a soul groove to “Black Betty” while unidentified Mississippi State Penitentiary prisoners rock the classic “John Henry.” Capturing nearly two-dozen seminal examples of the African-American folk song, Jail House Bound closes out with an interesting interview with John Lomax.

Jail House Bound includes a booklet with new liner notes and song-by-song annotation which put the collection in context. While the Lomaxes would later discover legends like Leadbelly and Muddy Waters, it was with these field recordings that they first began documenting the art form known as the blues. (West Virginia University Press, released February 28th, 2012)

Review originally published by Blues Revue magazine, 2012