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‘Pony Blues’, a song first recorded by Charley Patton but here ascribed to ‘Trad’. Arranged for a
slightly amplified acoustic guitar, this lone performance is an exemplar of how this stuff should
be done and retains the wonderful hook of the descending ‘slapped’ bass-line. FYI: The sleeve
picture of a little boy on a pony is Bert himself, “a few months after I was born”.

‘Goin’ Down Slow’, the St Louis Jimmy (James Oden) song, is an unamplified acoustic guitar with
some nice, if back-in-the-mix, harp work from Mats Qworfordt. The self described songster,
‘Texas Treasure’ Mance Lipscombe’s ‘Charlie James’ has Bert delivering some neat slide work
with contributions from Eva Deivert (Bert’s wife) on violin. “If you see Charlie James comin’
down the road, don’t tell him which way you see me go.”

Bert’s own songs ‘I Stand Up’, ‘Clarksdale Rag’, ‘Run A Little Slower’ and the wonderful, ‘Best
Blues Bar in Town’ include various combinations of Fredrick Lindholm (drums), Olaf Gudnasun
(double bass), Jesper Theis (guitar) and Puree C. Muadmuang (harmonica) all to great effect.
The album was produced by Séamus Deivert, Bert’s son. A family affaire!

A word about Bert himself. He has been at it for a long long time. Age has wearied him but the
years have not condemned. His singing now has a laconic edge to it that fits his songs perfectly.

And in some of his own songs, he has developed an almost conversational style of lyric writing
which is very effective.

He had an ambition to return the mandolin to the forefront of blues music a la Yank Rachel.
Although there is not much mandolin on the album what there is, is exemplary and I for one
would say that he has achieved his ambition.

Get this one right away. You won’t regret it!

Ian K McKenzie

Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram—Live In London—Alligator
Records

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that ‘Kingfish’ is still only 24
years old. I can remember seeing him (on film) when he was

about 15 and when he represented the Delta Blues Museum
(DBM) from Clarksdale, MS at the Whitehouse when on Novem-
ber 10, 2014 the museum was presented the National Arts and
Humanities Youth Program Award. The DBM Student Band,
fronted by Kingfish, performed at the White House Awards Cere-
mony. I was very impressed with his skills. Time has made him
even more impressive. And he already has a Grammy under his
belt too.

This double album, recorded in London in front of a packed audience at The Garage, with bassist
Paul Rogers, drummer Christopher Black and keyboardist Deshawn Alexander, Ingram delivered
17 songs drawing on both his previous albums and adding two new original tunes, ‘Midnight

Heat’ and ‘Mississippi Night’ an instrumental, as well as a blistering version of Michael “Iron
Man” Burks’ ‘Empty Promises’.

All in all, this is a magnificent gig. Some of the tracks are far too long for much airplay but offer
many wonderful hours of sitting back and soaking up the magnificent playing (what a vibrato).
Go for it!

Ian K McKenzie