Braid My Hair

Elam McKnight | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 15, 2003)
• Original Release Date: January 15, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bigblackhand.com Productions
• ASIN: B00008GKE4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,202,136 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Braid My Hair is the debut album from Elam McKnight. It is an exploration into Deep Blues and Elam refers to the overall sound produced on this album as "Roots Blues". "This is common folk’s music. It is inspired by the times of old when music was a vibe thing and capturing a performance was the goal and not whether it sounded polished enough." Three tracks on the album feature Cedric and Gary Burnside (Grandson and Son of Living Blues Legend R.L. Burnside.) "I met Cedric(drums) in Nashville one night and he invited me to Mississippi to jam. I did and met Gary(bass) who is also a wonderful musician. They are both steeped in the Hill Country sound and it was obvious once we hit it off that I needed them to contribute their piece to the overall project. You can tell instantly the tracks they played on and one of the things I like about those recordings is that they were done in a house in Chulahoma, way back in the country. That is about as raw as you can ! get. And with those two it is like ‘one, two, three go’ and you better hang on!"

Also joining Elam on his excursion into Deep Blues is "Hypnotic" Casey Lutton, a Nashville Blues veteran and former member of the Hypnotics. "Casey holds court over a Monday night jam that I began attending and he is one of the major reasons this album was even made. The guys (Casey, Steve Johnson-drums, and Michael Thorn-bass) knew I was trying to record an album and Casey said ‘let us be your backup band.’ I was more than happy to oblige." Also included are Ronnie Godfrey (piano and keys) and Zach Reynolds (Harmonica). "Both Ronnie and Zach are like hot sauce over an already good plate of food."

All but two of Braid My Hair’s tracks were written by McKnight and the album is like a classic car with all the added features, built for comfort and speed. "We run the gambit. You have Delta like Braid My Hair and Terraplane Blues (Robert Johnson), Soul with Sugar Cane, Hill Country Stomp with Crying Shame, Miss Maureen, and Three Legged Dog. Then you have some Roots acoustic numbers like Bob Zarecor Blues (a song about Elam’s Grandfather), Devil Got Religion and alternate versions of Miss Maureen and Three Legged Dog. I wanted to make an album I would like to listen to. One that has all the bells and whistles."