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Tinsley Ellis—Naked Truth—Alligator Records ASIN :
B0CM5S4BG7

Although normally an electric guitarist playing with a band, on
this album Tinsley drops the band and takes up his 1937 Na-

tional resonator guitar and his 1967 Martin acoustic to deliver
nine original songs and covers of Son House, Willie Dixon and
Leo Kottke.

We start with two originals the powerful ‘Devil in the Room’
with slide and echoey handclaps followed by the delicate Skip
James-like ‘Windowpane’, then it’s a blistering take on Son
House’s ‘Death Letter Blues’ with great slide guitar and equally
good vocals. The Willie Dixon song is ‘Don’t Go No Further’, as done by Muddy Waters, but it
works fine with just Tinsley’s vocals, guitar and foot stamps and the Kottke cover is ‘The
Sailor’s Grave on The Prairie’ a plaintive slide guitar instrumental that apparently Tinsley has
been playing on and off for 50 years.

The remaining songs are all originals – the Robert Johnson-like ‘Tallahassee Blues’, the slow
blues ‘Hoochie Mama’ and an up-tempo instrumental ‘Alcovy Breakdown’. ‘Horseshoes and
Hand Grenades’ is an authentic sounding delta blues and ‘Grown Ass Man’ is another up-
tempo blues that benefits from added handclaps. The album closes with a beautiful melodic
instrumental ‘Easter Song’.

I only discovered Tinsley Ellis for the first time a couple of years ago and was surprised by
how good he was. This album shows another side to him and I understand that he will now do
a tour in the States featuring solo performances with just him and the two guitars.

Graham Harrison

Cole & Ward—Blues and Other Truths—Rawtone Records

/ Green Bullet Records

Mark Cole and Liam Ward are perhaps both better known on
the blues circuit for their work with Sons of the Delta and the
Liam Ward Band respectively. Here they come together as Cole
& Ward with “Blues and Other Truths” their debut album re-
lease.

The album opens with ‘Deep Blood Moon’ which has a nice edgy
vibe followed by ‘Ma Jolie Fille’ which has a much more Cajun
feel with lyrics to match. ‘Midnight Motorway Blues’ is a driving blues (no pun intended) about
a musician’s life on the road, something we can all relate to with the late night closures and
road diversions! ‘The More You Drink…’ is a light hearted look at the pitfalls of drinking
alcohol with hints of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee to this one.

‘Food Off My Table’ is a bit of a jibe at the Old Etonian set whilst ‘Be Still My Soul’ takes us
down a Gospel path. ‘Weird Dream’ sure lives up to its title with lots of effects thrown in for
good measure and I’m sure Screamin’ Jay Hawkins would be proud of this one! ‘Who What

Where When Why’ is more of a straight up twelve bar blues.