Search - Geoff Muldaur and The Texas Sheiks :: Texas Sheiks

Crazy words, crazy tunes... and a wonderful exploration of t

Donald Leighty | Western Pennsylvania USA | 09/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"About a year before Texas guitarist Stephen Bruton's recent death, he and a few other friends were recruited by Geoff Muldaur to cut a song for a planned Mississippi Sheiks tribute. The group's version of "The World Is Going Wrong" was the first song completed for that project, but they also put a few other Sheiks songs in the can at the time.



Working together proved to be so much fun that "The Texas Sheiks" (which also included Suzy Thompson, Cindy Cashdollar, Johnny Nicholas, Bruce Hughes, and guest Sheik Jim Kweskin) decided to record a full album. This CD is the result. The full track list (along with the artist who was the primary model for the Sheiks' recording) is:



1. The World Is Going Wrong (The Mississippi Sheiks, 1931)

2. All By Myself (Big Bill Broonzy & Washboard Sam, 1953 remake)

3. Poor Boy (Banjo Joe, aka Gus Cannon, 1927)

4. Fan It (Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, 1936)

5. Hard Time Killin' Floor (Skip James, 1931)

6. Sweet To Mama (The Beale Street Sheiks: Frank Stokes & Dan Sane, 1927)

7. Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away (Oscar "Buddy" Woods, 1937)

8. Cairo (Henry Spaulding, 1929)

9. Under The Chicken Tree (Earl McDonald's Original Louisville Jug Band, 1927)

10. Please, Baby (The Mississippi Sheiks, 1931)

11. Blues In The Bottle (Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers, 1928)

12. Right Now Blues (Frank Stokes, 1929)

13. Travellin' Riverside (Robert Johnson, 1937)

14. Yellow Dog Blues (Wise String Orchestra, 1929)



Geoff Muldaur sings lead on about half of the songs. The others are split between Jim Kweskin, Johnny Nicholas, and Bruce Hughes, with an instrumental to close the album. Cindy Cashdollar's masterful touch on various kinds of slide guitars is a highlight, as is Suzy Thompson's tasteful (and tasty) fiddle playing. And Stephen Bruton is typically wonderful on a multitude of instruments. There are many styles of music represented here - blues, string bands, Western Swing, jug bands, hokum - but a common factor is that many of the originals featured a fiddle player, which lends the whole program a unity and coherence.



If you have fond memories of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, the old Elektra Blues Project anthology, the Lovin' Spoonful, Dan Hicks, Asleep at the Wheel, or practically any other roots artist, you'll probably enjoy this CD. And if you can't get enough of tongue-in-cheek celebrations of getting your ashes hauled, selling that jelly, or chickens that grow on trees, this collection of songs is certainly for you. Well-recorded, and with a hip, contemporary sensibility, there are few if any better explorations of the amazing traditional music of the 1920s and 1930s.



Notes are by Geoff Muldaur, T-Bone Burnette and Elijah Wald, and noted pop artist Ed Ruscha provided a painting for the album's cover.



Easily my favorite album of 2009, in any genre."

Brilliant record

Peters Day | Vaux-sur-Seine, France | 12/06/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Muldaur does it again.In this age of so much over produced unmelodic music, Geoff Muldaur along with Jim Kweskin play real american music."

Meteor hits earth

Jack Vaughan | Boston, MA USA | 12/10/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I picked up on this courtesy of Terry Gross radio show Fresh Air. This is like best midwestern dirt - you can eat it, like Granpappy Amos said. Etheral pickup banding. It's a steel guitar going down hill with Three Stooges beer kegs. Looking for the come back of the string band era, Bunky? - Gee this his it! Geoff Muldar in great form - I have only once seen sign of John Nicholas since he left Cambridge, but hoo-boy there he is. Cindy Cashdollar..why isnt every evening full of this yes-yes? all bunch in form with the lowdown blues sound - for a cause..to ease the burden of Stephen Bruton.. in what turned out to be his last days - but 'weep no more, mary' cause the essential element of the universe is here. And that is worth something. You should have bought this thing like five minutes ago, get it? Ponk! Splott! I swear it wont be long. Stephen left, Skip James gone, get it while you can and pass it around. And if you slurp wipe it off, right? The women in Cairo treat you nice and sweet - knock you off your feet. So get with it, k?"