Customer Reviews

Backwater Blues

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Friends, you cannot find old-school blues better than Backwater Blues. Sonny & Brownie's strained partnership has produced many excellent recordings, of which I believe this is the best. This album is the way the blues were meant to be played: just the simple, old-style tunes; just two men, two microphones, a guitar, and a harmonica. No fancy electronics, no prettyboy singers, just ol' Backwater Blues. If that's the way you like your blues, then get this album, sit back on a hot summer day, and play it all the way through!

A fine companion to the classic "Sonny & Brownie At Sugar Hill", this is a great buy for those who treasure Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee's brand of no-nonsense porch-style get-down blues.

The duo performs old warhorses like "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", "Key To The Highway", and "Careless Love", and they change "Sittin' On Top Of The World" to "Climbin' On Top Of The Hill, which doesn't make it anymore interesting, but even though the material is not always particularly original, the performances are sincere and spirited, and this CD includes great renditions of two of the duo's very best songs, "Walk On" and the classic "I'm A Stranger Here".

The clarity of the recording and the singing is pure as the driven snow, with no distortion or compression, and while "Backwater Blues" doesn't quite match "Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee At Sugar Hill" or the great, raw "Live At The Penelope Café" album for pure grit, it has more than enough highlights to make it worth your while. Fans of the duo should not pass this one by.

A superb blues album. Crisp and wonderful guitar work and lush rich voices. A wonderful addition to anyone's collection.

I would recommend this to any lover of the blues, great guitar, vocals and harmonica, totally cool!

This Backwater Blues CD is excellent. Not a bad song on it. These two were truly masters of this style of Blues. My favorite song on this CD is Louise, but I feel this is truly one of the best examples of their work.