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Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Guy
Davis—Fight On! True Blues Vol. 2—Yellow
Dog/Bandcamp

Well, Volume 1 of this set was released a very long time
ago—in 2013 (BC, Before COVID). It consisted of music

from Taj Mahal, Guy Davis, Shemekia Copeland, Corey
Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Phil Wiggins. On the
Telarc label and with 12 tracks, it was described as “a
collaboration of the best blues musicians currently

playing today”.

The format of that album was a collection of tracks—mostly solo performances

recorded at a range of venues all over the USA . On that album there were two tracks
with the artists performing as ensembles.

In this iteration, the artists only perform solo. The tracks were recorded separately
in Virginia, Mississippi and New York.

The album opens with Cory Harris’ passionate delivery of Jimmy Strothers’ banjo
song ‘We Are Almost Down To The Shore’ played with a stonking guitar part and
carrying the repeated phrase “Fight On”. The track was first recorded by Alan Lomax

in 1936.

Next up is a terrific version of Charlie Patton’s ‘Screamin’ and Hollering the Blues’

delivered by Alvin Youngblood Hart followed by ‘See Me When You Can’ from Guy
Davis, his own song, taken from his 1996 album “Call Down The Thunder”.

Corey Harris gives us ‘What’s That I Smell’. NOT the song of the same title written
by Georgia Tom Dorsey. It is an original written by Mr Harris and comes with another
terrific, occasionally complex, guitar part and a powerful vocal delivery.

Music written by Alvin Youngblood Hart (’If Blues Was Money’) and Guy Davis (‘Deep
Sea Diver’) is paired with songs attributed to Rev Gary Davis (’I Belong to The Band’),
Mississippi Fred McDowell (’Highway 61’) and Elizabeth Cotten (Everything I Got

is Done in Pawn’, an adaptation of ‘Shake Sugaree’) completes the album.

The cycle of songs reveals the truth of the statement by Corey Harris that: “The

thematic tie of the record lies in the fact that we are three African-American
bluesmen who are fighting to maintain our cultural legacy and heritage. Each of

these nine tracks represents a contemporary image of traditional Black lifeways.”

Amen to that!

Ian K McKenzie