Down in the Alley

Alvin Youngblood Hart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 9, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Memphis Int'l
• ASIN: B000068R2Q
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,666 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #65 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Contemporary Blues

Track Listings

1. Judge Bouche

2. How Long Before I Change My Clothes

3. Deep Blue Sea

4. Jinx Blues

5. Bootlegger's Blues

6. Alberta

7. Broke And Hungry

8. Devil Got My Woman

9. Chilly Winds

10. Tom Rushen Blues

11. Please Baby

12. Motherless Child

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars downhome heart, August 17, 2002

By 

Jerome Clark (Canby, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Down in the Alley (Audio CD)

While of course Alvin Youngblood Hart has the right to do any kind of music he chooses, it would be hard to dispute that he does downhome African-American music best. He's in top form on this splendid recording, which harks back to the sound of his first. Like Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Henry Thomas, and Mance Lipscomb, he is a gifted bluesman but not only a bluesman. He is also immersed in the older rural traditions out of which the blues emerged a century or so ago. Thus, for two examples, the riveting renditions of the deep-folk songs "Deep Blue Sea" (not to be confused with the Tommy McClennan "Catfish Blues" variant of the same name) and "Chilly Winds." Though credited to Odetta, the latter is actually a cobbling-together of the title song (ubiquitous in both black and white tradition), "Pea Vine Whistle," and "K. C. Moan" -- themselves merely versions of older songs of murky origin. Hart not only revives the all-but-lost art of African-American five-string banjo but also masters it. The result is a sound nothing short of exhilarating.

I like everything on this album, with one small qualification. Hart boldly takes on the masters, making even Charley Patton's "Tom Rushen Blues" beautifully his own. Yet Skip James defeats him, as James seems to defeat everybody who tries him. Hart's version of "Devil Got My Woman" isn't bad, but James's original has an otherworldly quality which manages always to evade capture or even reinvention. If somebody has ever done a better version of any James song than James himself, I have never heard it.

This quibble notwithstanding, this is the sort of recording one has a very hard time taking off one's turntable. It should make all who hear it grateful that Hart is a relatively young man and that there's more -- plenty more, one hopes -- where it comes from.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God he's back, July 19, 2002

By 

Jonathan M. Winterburn (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down in the Alley (Audio CD)

As a country blues album, this cd is superb. While I agree with the reviewer who noticed that it could have included a couple more songs, I don't think his gripe about the song selection is warranted. First, whether or not Carter's version of Alberta is better than Leadbelly's is a matter of taste and opinion. I personally prefer Leadbelly's. Next, while it could be said that Devil Got My Woman has been done many times before, I think Hart's unusual vocal rendition is reason enough to have it on the album. That said, I want to say that I haven't stopped listening to this damn thing since I got it. It opens with Judge Bouche, a Lewis classic which sounds phenomenal in Hart's hands and voice; great open E slide work. Next is How Long Before I Change My Clothes, a Bukka White number, which scared the hell out of me when I first heard Hart's version. Melodically, the song is similar to Bukka's, but Hart changes it up a bit, and that howl is unearthly; I have never heard anything like that on record. Deep Blue Sea is a great number on which Hart accompanies himself on banjo. I liked this song so much, I've started playing it myself;... Next comes what is called "Jinx Blues", and the notes indicate that Son House wrote this one. Now, while Son did write a beautiful piece called Jinx Blues, this ain't it; this is a version of Patton's Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues. Hart's guitar work on this is astounding, maybe even almost worthy of Patton himself, but let's not jump the gun. Next is a rollicking rendition of the Sheiks' Bootlegger's Blues. Then the aforementioned Alberta; was expecting the Carter version, but was pleasantly surprised to hear Leadbelly's instead; Hart is spot-on with this one. Estes' Broke and Hungry is next, on which a mandolin is used, and put to good use; people used to Willie Brown's version of this song will find new life in this rendition. Then we have Devil, about which I've aready said my piece. Then we have Chilly Winds, an Odetta number; Hart wields a banjo for this and makes the room windy enough to cry. Next is Patton's Tom Rushen Blues; great rendition, and I love Hart's use of the bottleneck on this one; he expands on Charlie's arrangemet, especially on the third line of each staza,making it his own and giving us the treat of hearing a great musician interpreting another great musician's work. Next is Please Baby, a piece I had never heard before this; I don't know who wrote it, but it's listed as traditional in the notes; it's a nice blues piece with some sweet dobro work. Lastly we have Motherless Child; this one has Hart's hallmark on it, from beginning to end, complete with unique vocals... In my opinion, [this album] is every bit as good as Big Mama's Door, and thank God he's come back.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best!, August 24, 2002

By 

Scott R. Simpson (Springfield, il United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Down in the Alley (Audio CD)

This is a wonderful CD. Alvin is back at what he does best. If you are an acoustic country blues fan. BUY THIS!! Easily the best acoustic blues album of 2002. Period. His version of Bukka White's "Change My Clothes" will blow you away with the wonderful cornfield holler falsetto. Damn!