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Cristina Vane—Make Myself Me Again—Red Parlor
Records ASIN B09X3F13FK

I commented that Cristina’s last CD ‘Nowhere Sounds Lovely’
was more Americana and country than blues - but I did like
its originality. Here we begin with the title track which is a
nice gentle blues song with slide guitar – I like her unaffected,
sweet voice “Sometimes I lose, sometimes I win, I’m gonna

make myself me again.” ‘River Roll’ is bluegrass featuring
Cristina on clawhammer banjo and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes on
fiddle, while it’s back to the blues with ‘How You Doin’’ with
Cristina back on slide and Jake Friel on harp. He also plays on the lovely acoustic ‘Small Town
Nashville Blues’ and the electric ‘Little Black Cloud’.

More bluegrass on the beautiful ‘Time for Leaving’ with its superb fiddle (Bronwyn Keith-

Hynes again) then it’s back to a very bluesy ‘Things Have Changed’ (complete with Mr. Friel)
and ‘Colorado Sky’ is a poignant slide guitar song. ‘Oxbow Meander Loop’ is a banjo tune co-
written with Kyle Tuttle and featuring him on baritone banjo and with Billy Contreras
burning it up on fiddle. ‘Strange Times’ plays us out with Cristina on electric slide and her
sweet, melodic voice still manages to cut through the backing which has a 60s ‘progressive
blues’ vibe. The album was produced by Brook Sutton (Blackberry Smoke) and Jano Rix (The

Wood Brothers) and they also handle bass and percussion and it also features Karl Smakula
and Tyler Larson on guitars. I think that this is a real progression from her last record which
again features the same mixture of blues and country but with no attempt to sound black or
scream out the blues, Cristina does it her own way and does it very well.

Graham Harrison

Charlie Musselwhite Mississippi Son Alligator Records
ASIN B09TFWNCXF

This album celebrates blues harmonica legend and Memphis
native Charlie Musselwhite's return to the South and

Mississippi after his longtime exile in California. The return
to Mississippi also sees a return to the country blues with
Charlie supplying his own guitar and vocals alongside his
harp, with just occasional support from Ricky “Quicksand”
Martin on drums and Barry Bays on double bass. Opener
'Blues up the River' has Charlie on electric guitar, as does
John Lee Hooker's 'Hobo Blues' but the wonderful 'In Your
Darkest Hour' has him playing acoustic. 'Remembering Big Joe' is an instrumental tribute to

bluesman Big Joe Williams played on one of Big Joe's guitars (no mean feat as Big Joe played a
doctored 9-string guitar) and 'The Dark' is a spoken word poem by Guy Clark converted into a
blues song by Mr. Musselwhite.