Wait! There’s more from the New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers? Volume 1 released last September wasn’t just a one-time shot?
Yep, now there’s Volume 2, but don’t think of it as a sequel. It’s the second installment of the 2007 session where Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica), Jimbo Mathus (guitar), Alvin Youngblood Hart (guitar/mandolin), the late Jim Dickinson (piano), and sons, North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther (guitar) and Cody (drums) all broke bread together at the Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch. Obviously, the tape was rolling, but oddly the recording sat for more than a dozen years, only to be obscurely mentioned in interviews. Eventually, Stony Plain’s Holger Petersen caught wind of it and allowed it to see the light of day.
Like Volume 1, Volume 2 is a song cycle with most Freedom Rockers alternating on vocals. Five of the 11 tracks are originals, with Mathus and the iconic Musselwhite contributing two apiece and Hart one. With five vocalists, who are usually their own front men, the textures constantly shift for a multi-hued, diverse flavoring of blues’ many facets.
Though it’s a feast of heavy blues fodder, Mathus’ boastful “Greens and Hams” is particularly novel. Instead of having a girl in every port, he has ’em on every street in town—hopefully, not a small town.
Still, there are a few surprises along the way, most notably the jaunty “She’s About a Mover” from Sir Douglas Quintet. “Oh Lord Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me” is an even bigger jolt—a social protest song from jazz icon Charles Mingus that evolves from elegant piano rolls to a moaning Pentecostal-like séance.
Two-thirds of the way through with Musselwhite’s swampy, sinister-sounding “Black Water,” the collective hits its stride for the album’s deepest grooves. That feeling of immersive connectivity continues through Hart’s edgy, mandolin-tinkling “Millionaire Blues (If Blues Was Money)” and the piano-pumping “Can’t Stand to See You Go.” Earl Hooker’s “Blues Guitar” brims with primal intensity. Finally, the closing “Blues Is a Mighty Bad Feeling” releases any remaining energy.
Fuzz-drenched, unvarnished, and raw, there’s nothing slick about this. It’s as real as the grease in your frying pan.
