Delta Crossroads

Robert Lockwood Jr. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 25, 2000)
• Original Release Date: July 25, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B00004UDEK
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,562 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There's a stereotype about the Delta blues. You know the one: some guy sitting on a back porch somewhere, or maybe in a boxcar, with his guitar, singing about some woman who left him. But real Delta blues is far more flexible, creative, and, above all, spooky than that. It takes someone who learned from the style's master--that would be Robert Johnson, in case you're wondering--to explore the music's length and breadth, and that someone is Robert Lockwood Jr. That's why, even though he covers some of the hoariest chestnuts the Delta blues has to offer--yep, there's "Dust My Broom," and yep, there's "Love in Vain," and "Ramblin' on My Mind," not to mention Lightnin' Hopkins's "C.C. Rider," which has been covered by just about everyone who can sling an acoustic guitar--Lockwood keeps the music fresh and appealing. There's no question that he's good at what he does; he's won a W.C. Handy award, been nominated for a Grammy, and remained one of the most respected bluesmen around for decades. It would be hard to select a more clichéd title for a Delta blues album than Delta Crossroads--Lockwood does not, by the way, cover "Crossroad Blues" on this album, but that's fine; he's earned the right. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another gem by a master, September 12, 2000

By 

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

This review is from: Delta Crossroads (Audio CD)

Robert Lockwood, Jr., remains a national blues treasure who still sounds as fresh and vital today as he did decades ago. Telarc has issued a new cd, Delta Crossroads, which is surprising in being a solo acoustic album. Robert is heard on fine performances of a number of blues associated with his stepfather, Robert Johnson's songs, several other blues standards and his own originals.This is not his first acoustic blues album. He recorded for a French label, Plays Robert & Robert which has been reissued in the US on Evidence. And he has included tracks on prior albums in a similar vein. Robert has recorded most of the songs heard here in the past, although perhaps under different titles. For example, his This Little Girl of Mine was recorded with his band as Hold Everything on his first Trix album. This writer is familiar with other renditions of most of the Robert Johnson songs. Johnson's 32-20 Blues that opens this album may be the one song I have not heard him on record do before. Lockwood, in fact, recorded Dust My Broom prior to Elmore James, although it was issued later, and he did Rambling on My Mind on his Steady Rolling Man album on Delmark. He plays with his usual skill and sings straightforwardly and without any artifice. Its nice to hear renditions of performances of blues classics he regularly performs including C.C. Rider and Leroy Carr's Mean Mistreater and In the Evening, which is juxtaposed with a rendition of Love In Vain, which uses the latter tune's melody. This is beautifully recorded and produced by Joe Harley and is a worthy addition to his growing body of recordings. Hopefully we will get a new album of Robert with his band real soon.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the REAL stuff -- His Best Ever, August 8, 2000

By 

William E Donoghue "Fessor Mojo" (Healdsburg CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Delta Crossroads (Audio CD)

Delta Crossroads, Robert Lockwood Jr. Telarc CD-83509

"Who'd guess that Robert Lockwood Jr. - an MVP guitarist since the days when blues began turning electric, the surrogate stepson of Robert Johnson, a member of the original King Biscuit Boys, a jazz inclined six-string innovator and author of such classics as `That's Alright' [Yes, the Jimmie Rogers classic] and `Black Spider Blues' [yes, Muddy Waters' "Mean Red Spider"] - would make one of the best albums of his career at age 85?" asks Ted Drozdowski in Tower Records' August 2000 PULSE magazine

Well, Ted, I would. Working on his upcoming biography {They Call Me MISTER. Lockwood) with him, I have gotten to know this enigmatic, wise, no-nonsense, and, yes, humorous gentleman. I have had the privilege of seeing him play in several settings including singing "Sweet Home Chicago" on the street in Helena Arkansas where Robert Johnson taught it to him. His son Hamer remembers Robert Jr. singing this song to him as a lullaby before he would go on the road with Sonny Boy back in 1942.

Robert Jr. is no spring chicken but as a man who does 80 push-ups each day to keep in shape, leads an 8-piece band that I can only describe as "the best band playing today the music of 1950 (R&B. blues & Bebop)," and takes the risk of playing a 12-string electric with the band and a 12-string acoustic on this solo (just him and his guitar) album, Robert Jr. is playing as well as he played in the mid-thirties, maybe the best in his career.

Don't miss this special album. This is no reissue of past successes, no rediscovered bluesman's memories of how he "used" to play, no simple rehash of Robert Johnson song and no sell-out to pop markets; this is the finest expression of the blues of a man who is writing and playing personal, confident new and original blues with his still-unique sound and vision today. You will hear the life of Robert Jr. [Call him "Mr. Lockwood"] played with professionalism, soul, passion and style. No one else comes close to him at his best and this is one of his VERY best.

Robert Johnson would be proud to call this man "my son and the heir to my musical vision." Wherever he is, he is smiling and tapping his foot and saying "Damn, I wish I had played that lick when I recorded that song."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Good!, November 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Delta Crossroads (Audio CD)

An updated but authentic blues recording. If you love the blues and are sometimes frustrated by the quality of the old recordings, you'll love this disc. Robert Lockwood, Jr. is a blues master who shows it's possible to reinterpret old standards while remaining true to the blues form. I can't recommend this disc highly enough!