Modern sounds of the Delta

by Jim Trageser
This review first appeared in the March 17, 1995 issue of the North County Blade-Citizen (now North County Times).

David Malone is carrying on his family's musical tradition – he's the son of Delta bluesman Junior Kimbrough (who also has two albums of his own out on the same Fat Possum label that issued this disc). Malone's debut release is also the first new recording venture between small blues indie Fat Possum and the more established Capricorn Records to bring modern electric Delta blues to the larger mainstream music world.

And this is some raw, powerful blues – nothing like what B.B. King or Muddy Waters were playing a half-century ago when they came out of the Mississippi River Delta to make their marks on the world. Guitarist David Thompson's sound is as if he strung his axe with barbed wire, whiel Malone's singing has far more punch than polish.

But if rough around the edges, the backbeat by drummer Kenny Malone (David's brother) and bassist Dwayne Burnside (another second-generation Delta bluesman) is hypnotic. Malone's songwriting is compelling, with simple riffs you're unlikely to get out of your head.

All in all, this modern "juke" blues (as it's being called to differentiate it from the traditional Delta style most blues fans are familiar with) is something all its own. Never smooth, it is nevertheless very listenable.