Customer Reviews

Feel Like Doin' Something Wrong

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a great day it was when this classic blues record was re-released last month. Possessing what may amount to one of only a few cassette copies of this record from its original release, I've had the immeasurable pleasure of listening to Cedell Davis lay down some of the most soulful and intense blues around. Feel Like Doin Somethin Wrong is the epitome of Cedell's style, which some would dismiss as out of tune, but as the liner notes by Robert Palmer express, Cedell simply plays in an "alternate tuning," and his songs are consistent in their sound. Tunes including "I Don't Know Why," and "Falling Rain Blues" exhibit a tone and attitude not found in blues records by artists more interested in production and shine. Feel Like Doin Somethin Wrong is about a feelin', and Cedell Davis has it in spades. The "Boogie Chillin" cover is perhaps as good as the original, what with the R.L. Burnside groove and Cedell's urgent howl. "If You Like Fat Women" is something of a staple within Cedell's repetoir, winding up on his next record as well, and with good reason, for it's a hilarious song that again hits the groove with a vengence. The bottom line here is emotion, and if you can feel the intensity of Cedell Davis' songs, then by all means seek out any and all records by him and any of the other Fat Possum Records recording artists. Their sound might even be more "accessible", and I guarantee it's just as intense!

When my wife, Arline, and I went to the Delta for the first time back in the 1980s, we decided to pick one Delta Blues player to look up. We picked CeDell Davis, because he played the funkiest blues that we had heard. We had a hard time even finding CeDell, but eventually tracked him down at a nursing home in Pine Bluff with the help of Robert Palmer. It was a lot of fun to spend time with CeDell, which we did again on several subsequent trips to the Delta. Without going into all of the details here, the thing that's amazing is how much of the near-legendary world of the blues was just an ordinary part of his life. Robert Johnson was just another bluesman on the streets of Helena to CeDell and his friends. CeDell spent a number of years touring as a guitar player for Robert Nighthawk. While he says himself that it's hard to find any recorded music that compares to the nights when Nighthawk and his band were feeling it, still, I get a real kick out of CeDell and his music. I've heard him play a lot a lot more flat (dissonant) sounding music than he does on this record, and I think the flatter the better, but this record does a nice job of capturing his sound. I think Fat Possum is great label, by the way, and it's worth checking out all their releases.

Some would say that the only thing CeDell did wrong was to play his right-handed guitar upside down, left-handed, using a butter knife for a slide. For CeDell however, this was not only a necessity due to crippling effects of childhood polio but, it created a haunting, yet original, sound that ultimately turned out to be just right. "Feel Like Doin' Something Wrong" is not only CeDell's first full length recording but also, hands down, CeDell's best work. Fat Possum and Robert Palmer deserve a lot of credit for discovering CeDell and producing this masterful disc. The sound and quality remain true to what you might have heard on any given night in Junior Kimbrough's juke joint where CeDell performed. While much of the CD features CeDell and his mutated brand of slide guitar, there are also numbers that include the Burnside family and free jazz artist, Col. Bruce Hampton. For the adventuresome, this is highly recommended!

AS most of you know or maybe not or maybe its politically incorrect to inform prospective buyers that this kick you in the gut bluesman uses a butterknife on the fretboard and polio ravaged right hand for picking/rhythem as shown in YOU SEE ME LAUGHING. Cedell has had malaria and was hit hard by many things, so what does he do, as a guitar player he as he points out "plays on top of the strings".. he just keeps going. He really got a push from ROBERT PALMER the writer who brought him to New York and got him on the circuit because Palmer believed Cedell was the last of the gut wrenching primitive bluesmen. He is on MYSPACE and he answered a message I sent to him. He's a deffinate one and only... This CD shows the possibilities of overcoming obstacle and not only that, making the bluesgrab you shake you and sometimes make you laugh. The album is FEEL LIKE DOIN' SOMETHING WRONG...but he does everything right from his wheelchair, with a giant heart, memories of being ravaged by fate, Everything is right with this gathering of tunes.

Cedell has a sound all his own. This is undeniable, from his twangy chords being held by an old kitchen knife, the backward strung guitar he plays to the pain in his voice. Cedell's timing is impeccable! If Robert Pirsig had heard Cedell Davis play, the search for the meaning of quality would have ended. Cedell Davis is quality! Don't be afraid; its alright to buy anything that has his name on it

One Amazon.com review incorrectly calls CeDell Davis a "Mississippian." Cedell is a native of Arkansas. He was born in Arkansas Delta boom town of Helena on June 9, 1927. He has since settled in another Arkansas Delta town, Pine Bluff. CeDell's unique "out of tune" style that he creates by playing slide with a knife is done out of necessity. When CeDell was nine he contracted polio and lost the use of his right hand. This album was CeDell's first. He has been recorded by Jim O'Neil of Rooster blues records for an Arkansas anthology, _Keep it to Yourself_. CeDell's latest album from Fat Possum, _The Horror of It All_, is in a similar vein as this reissue.