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‘You Don’t Care’ mixes blues and country rather like vintage Delbert McClinton, though something

about the coolness of Johnny’s cool vocal (and maybe just the slightest hint of Tex-Mex) brought Ry
Cooder to mind — lovely backing vocals too. ‘L.A. Fog’ has a supper-club sophistication, whilst
‘Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)’ allows the leader to show off his Wilson Pickett licks.

With musicians of the calibre of Tony Braunagel and Johnny Lee Schell in support (reprised from

the earlier release), it should come as no surprise this is a real winner. Johnny Ray is the star of the
show though, and you can’t really go wrong with this release. AND it closes with a great version of
Toussaint McCall’s southern soul classic, ‘Nothing Takes The Place Of You’…

Norman Darwen

(www.johnnyrayjones.com)

Walter Parks & the Unlawful Assembly—Unlawful Assembly—
Independent

Walter Parks from Jacksonville, Florida was the guitarist for
Richie Havens for a decade or so, has worked with many people

both inside and outside of the blues scene, and leads his own
blues band, Swamp Cabbage. He also researched the music of the
Okefinokee Swamp homesteaders (and has been recognised by
the Library Of Congress for this), which has a strong bearing on

this set, a project of his with drummer Steven Williams, drawing
on what his website describes as “Americana spirituals”.

That’s not a bad description either. These are not hoary old
spirituals dusted off for dry presentation to a small selection of academics. No, rather, Walter and

his top-notch band treat them with respect, but also make them contemporary — Americana, blues,
gospel, and southern rock.

One of the set’s two originals opens this set, the southern soul-inflected ‘Shoulder It’; the other is
the old Okefinokee Swamp folk tale, ‘Georgia Rice’ with its haunting feel helped by drawing on the

swamp hollers. The venerable ‘Wade In The Water’ (with wonderful vocals from Ada Dyer—but that
goes for wherever she crops up here) has a very bluesy arrangement. ‘Steal Away’ is throbbing,
house-wrecking gospel, ‘Old Blind Barnabas’ hits a soul/Americana groove, and even has a hint of
rap in the testifying. ‘Amazing Grace’ is quiet, acoustic-based and reflective, and ‘Early In The
Morning’, despite being adapted from an Alan Lomax work-song has a modern sound; so too does

the old slave escape verbal map that is ‘Follow The Drinking Gourd’. That chestnut ‘Down By The
Riverside’ is certainly reinvigorated by Walter’s sympathetic but inventive backing.

So, as I said, this is a contemporary Americana set, deeply — very deeply — rooted in the great well
of American traditional music. It’s really rather wonderful.

Norman Darwen

(www.walterparks.com)