When sifting through obscure blues, you find lots of characters. Life stories can equal, and sometimes even surpass, the music, but it is the music that ultimately counts—colorful stories only go so far. Of course, there are also the rarefied few like John Jackson whose personality runs through the music like water through blood. It’s not that Jackson is a good singer and player (which he is), but by the end of Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, you’ll probably want to call him up and talk for a while. It seems as if there’s someone familiar in the CD player.
Part of the reason for the familiarity is the matter-of-fact delivery Jackson maintains in every song. “Nobody’s Business But Mine” is a credo without bitterness, more strength than ego. It typifies Jackson’s attitude. “Graveyard Blues” becomes vaudeville in his hands, despite the promise of the refrain: “I’m gonna start a graveyard of my own/If that man don’t leave my gal alone.” Jackson speaks the main action of the song, his rising intonation ending each sentence, punctuated with a questioning “who” or “huh” that was answered in the previous line. “Graveyard Blues,” in fact, is easily the consummate Jackson song in terms of vocal style: the speaking passages allow his Rappahannock County, Virginia accent to flourish where it had only been suggested throughout the rest of the album.
Musically, Jackson owes as much to country and bluegrass as to anything else. These influences show themselves most clearly on, respectively, the title track (whose progression of sevenths recalls Texas swing) and “If Hattie Wants to Lu, Let Her Lu Like A Man” (a finely-picked banjo solo). The largely traditional “Boats up the River” contains elements of country, bluegrass and blues in both melody and in a musical line that is echoed in altered form in other songs, lending a continuity to the collection.
None of the above is meant to suggest that Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down will change your life, but listening to this recording (put together from four different sessions between 1965 and 1969) is a pleasant introduction to a very talented man.
