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There are more updates of old blues songs with versions of Furry Lewis's 'K.C. Jones',
R.L. Burnside's 'Poor Boy' (featuring his son Duwayne), Fred McDowell's 'Write Me
a Few of Your Lines' and also the traditional 'John Henry'. I like the way that the
Allstars don't try to replicate the sounds of these old songs but always add their
own modern twists to them, while also showing respect for the originals. Meanwhile
new original songs like the title track and 'Don't Let the Devil Ride' (with vocals
from Joey Williams) are also a perfect blend of traditional blues and more modern
influences including psychedelia, funk and hip hop. The closing track 'Monomyth
(Folk Hero's Last Stand)' is an instrumental unlike anything else on the album with
its trippy slide guitar and piano. Luther and Cody are joined on the album by Joey
Williams and Rayfield Holman in the core band, with the addition of other Mississippi
buddies including Widespread Panic's JoJo Hermann and also The Dead's Phil Lesh's
son Grahame on bass.

Graham Harrison

Matt Schofield Trio—Many Moons Vol.1—
Number 7 Records

It's been 'many moons' since Matt recorded with
the trio of himself, Jonny Henderson on Hammond
organ and drummer Evan Jenkins, so he
reconvened the trio in Peter Gabriel's Real World
Studio near Bath. This is the first volume of those
recordings, with the second possibly coming later
this year. We blast off with 'Can't Catch My Breath'
an up-tempo rocker with Matt's fabulous-sounding
lead guitar and vocals, plus powerful organ from
Jonny and skipping drums from Evan, then 'Any
Questions' is traditional slow blues – with
outstanding lead guitar and Matt's vocals being equally as good.

'Shoe on the Other Foot' has an interesting stuttering tempo and 'Measure of a Man'
is another delicious seven-and-a-half-minute slow blues. 'Wellington Shuffle' is an
instrumental with some nice unison playing by Matt and Jonny, 'Do Me Right' is
funky and Percy Mayfield's 'Danger Zone’ is jazzy, a bit like Mose Allison, and we
finish with the noisy blues rock of Albert Collins' 'Nothin' But A Party'. This is a fine-
sounding record and it's good to see Matt back in a recording studio with his guitar
and vocals and also the other members of the trio all sounding really great.

Graham Harrison

Seth Walker—Why the Worry—Royal Potato
Records ASIN: B0DSQ7T6J5

I was very impressed by Seth's 2009 album “Leap
of Faith”, particularly his song writing, but on this
his latest album (apparently his 12th) he mixes
original tracks with covers of Bill Withers, JJ Cale
(2), Al Green, Michael Kiwanuka and Bobby Charles.
The album is produced by Jano Rix (of The Wood
Brothers) and Brook Sutton, with a core band of
multi-instrumentalist Rhees Williams, Mark
Raudabaugh (drums), Matt Glassmeyer (sax), Kelly
Mickwee (backing vocals) – and with multi-