GARY CLARK,JR.

There is something for everybody on
this set of six originals and seven covers as
she performs blues, soul, R&B, funk, and
jazz with an understated knowing aplomb.
The most interesting covers happen to be
overdone standards, but ones that are so
thoroughly rearranged that they barely
evoke the originals (or their countless covers).
Junior Parker’s “Next Time You See
Me,” performed as a cadent, horn-propelled
Nawlins strutter, is a thing of joy while Willie
Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You”
segues into furious funk after a more traditional
one minute spin featuring Li’l Ronnie
Owens’ wailing harp. Her friend, the late
Nashville songwriter Ted Jarrett (of “It’s Love
Baby (24 Hours A Day)” fame), is covered
with the brassy mid-tempo shuffle “I’m Just
What You’re Looking For.” Her best original,
“Blues Recipe,” a potential song-of-the year
candidate, is a sly, smoldering slow blues
that offers an admonition to blues-singing
“wannabees” to look for another line of
work. Soul-blues fans will enjoy her salacious
shuffle bumps “I Know A Good Thing”
and “I Fell” as well as Denise LaSalle’s “Man
Size Job.” Marion James is a genuine soul
music survivor and Northside Soul is her
finest record. Kudos to the EllerSoul crew.
– Thomas J. Cullen III
ERIC BURDON
‘Til Your River Runs Dry
ABKCO
Mellowing with age? Trying bellowing. Still
kicking complete ass at 70, Eric Burdon
unleashes a furious string of tough accusations
and burning questions. He makes his
intentions on ‘Til Your River Runs Dry clear
early on, with the raucous, witheringly honest
“Old Habits Die Hard.” Later, Burdon
imagines a presidential visit during “Invitation
To The White House” in which he
makes a heartfelt demand that the commander
in chief spend more time focused on
problems at home, rather than fighting foreign
wars with unclear objectives. He even
makes a scalding pass at that love-gonewrong
classic “Before You Accuse Me.”
All along, Burdon’s backing band, featuring
members of the blues-rocking Teresa
James Band (Terry Wilson, bass, and Billy
Watts, guitar) for half of the album and the
Phantom Blues Band’s Tony Braunagel
(drums), Mike Finnigan (keyboards), and
Johnny Lee Schell (guitars), accelerates the
music like a muscle car roaring to life after
too long parked out back. Burdon does his
part, too, squalling like a quartet of mile-wide
radials. He’s never sounded more visceral,
or angrier, and it’s a wonder to behold.
Not that ‘Til Your River Runs Dry isn’t
filled with a sweep of other textures and
emotions. In fact, this project amounts to a
command performance across a stirring
BLUES REVUE 49