Bywater Dance

Mary Flower | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 13, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yellow Dog Records
• ASIN: B000AXWHCQ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,308 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #33 in Music > Blues > Regional Blues > Memphis Blues

Editorial Reviews

"Elegant" and "funky" aren’t words you’d expect to find in the same sentence, let alone used to describe the same album. But Mary Flower, one of America’s finest blues and roots performers, pulls off that feat with Bywater Dance. A singer with a rich, sultry voice and an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist who also plays flawless lap slide, she reaches to the deepest roots of American roots music for her Yellow Dog Records debut.

Bywater Dance brought Mary to a steamy district just downriver from the French Quarter, where her masterful guitar was joined by some of the Big Easy’s finest – Henry Butler, Jon Cleary and Dr. Michael White, among others. You’ll hear rolling rhum-boogie piano, moaning Creole clarinet, ragtime washboard and primally funky sousaphone, as Mary is joined by each partner in turn for a marvelous musical dance.

The result sometimes sounds like Memphis Minnie fronting the Hot Five – neither strictly traditional acoustic blues nor straight New Orleans jazz, but a bewitching blend of both that is something new and different. Funky and folky, bluesy and beautiful, Bywater Dance is one irresistible musical journey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Typically marvellous release by master fingerstyle blueswoman, March 26, 2006

By 

R. Weinstock (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bywater Dance (Audio CD)

One of the truly wonderful fingerstyle guitarists and a lovely vocalist, Mary Flower went into a studio in the Bywater area of New Orleans last May shortly after JazzFest and with various local musicians wandered into the studio, joining her for her latest recording, ""Bywater Dance" (Yellow Dog Records). It is bitter irony that this disc came out shortly after Katrina devastated much of the Crescent City, but this is a terrific recording in which the guest musicians sound like they had played with Mary for some time, not simply in the studio. One thing refreshing about Mary is that she mines songs oft the beaten path, so no Robert Johnson covers thankfully. Instead we hear her render a marvelous "Blues My Naughtiy Sweetie Gives to Me," with some rolling piano from Amasa Miller and a hot clarinet solo from Tim Laughlin. Miller switches to accordion on "Crow Jane," which is derived from the William walker recording and her marvelous strutting guitar matches Walker's original. On "Raise the Devil," after an introduction with some sublime slide playing from Flower, Jon Cleary adds some wonderful backing piano. Cleary is also present on Flowers' rendition of George Washington Thomas' "New Orleans Hop Scotch," one of the first recordings to sport a boogie bass pattern. Kirk Joseph adds sousaphone for the bass here and a horn section including Tim Laughlin and Charlie Miller add atmosphere. Clearly takes a nice Longhair-flavored piano break, and Flower has a typically cleanly executed solo.

She is a marvellous blueswoman and only being conservative with my rating causes me to give it four and not five stars as I do recommend this unreservedly.