Return of the Otis Brothers - Let's Go to Huntin'The Susquehanna Hat Record Co. SUS-CD8072 (from Stefan Wirz's discography) or OB8072 (from my copy of the CD)
2003
An informal review. I've been thoroughly enjoying this CD for the past couple days, having ordered it after frankie posted about an Otis Brothers gig recently and Stefan posted his Otis Bros. discography. Let me begin by confirming The Otis Brothers mean what they say: this is not a high production value CD, and is basically done with one microphone if we are to believe the claims, and there's no reason not to. I say that not because I dislike it, just want to be up front for those who may have fancier expectations. It is Lo-Fi. There are also no song credits or notes indicating who is doing what on which tune.
The CD is a mix of blues, gospel, old-time and just plain strange and wonderful music.
You have to admire guys who open a CD with Leadbelly's rather obscure Relax Your Mind. And it pretty much gets more unusual from there. One of the things I love about this record is Bob Guida and Pat Conte are just playing, doing their thing, and digging deep into a treasure trove of weird music. Their singing and harmonies are rough-edged, the notes aren't always "right", but they've been playing together forever and sound like it - in the end, it all blends into something that is tremendously appealing to me. Sometimes they sound like they just herniated something. (Again, I mean this as a good thing.) All the rough edges are there - they're just not the same rough edges you might know from the original recordings,
if you know them (not a given with this material!).
But the spirit seems to me to be dead-on. Take "Down On Me", which some people may know by Josh White, and in this case is based on a tremendously cool gospel recording by Eddie Head and His Family. The Otis Bros. manage to capture something of the crazed harmony of the original (and the guitar part) but still play their own version. The most familiar title on the CD for most of the people here, "Pony Blues", is based on the Son House version, not Charley Patton's. Some of the material is based on downright obscure field recordings: "Come On, Boys, and Let's Got to Huntin'" is from a Lomax recording of an unaccompanied vocal by Henry Truvillion, done here as an old-time-style fiddle tune. "The Blood-Stained Bandits" is based on another Lomax recording of Jimmie Strothers, from Virginia. I believe this is Pat Conte playing solo (though can't be sure) -- what he's playing, I'm not sure, but it's a really beautiful performance, employing what sounds like a kind of frailing technique applied to guitar (a tenor guitar? a banjo that sounds like a guitar?). Unfortunately, my CD has some kind of brief skip at the 2:39 mark, slightly marring what is a gorgeous song. "Cairo" is the Henry Spaulding tune, also done later by Henry Townsend, and is an played on electric guitars. Recording here is bootleg quality, like they forgot some old school library tape recorder was running and later decided "That's a take!", to steal a line from Frankie. Keep in mind these are guys who have experimented with recording on Edison cylinders. "Death Is Riding High" sounds like it's from the same "session" and is a blues jam version of Rev. Gary Davis's "Sun Goin' Down", which I only know from the O, Glory album, as far as I can recall.
I should point people to two mp3 radio shows at
http://www.downhomeradioshow.com/. One is a very entertaining and long interview with Guida and Conte, and the other focuses on some recordings that have influenced them for this CD, with more interviews and other stuff. Both are very worthwhile listening, IMO.
Here's the tracklist to the Return of the Otis Brothers. I've tried to place the original recordings that are the starting points for the tracks on the CD, but if anyone has any further insight or can fill gaps, it would be much appreciated. This is a very enjoyable and thought-provoking CD, in my opinion. It makes me think about how I would approach this or that tune, beyond learning how to play, in some measure, the recorded versions. Every track on this record gives me real pleasure. But if you like things smooth and clean, you may be in for a shock. The radio show above, BTW, mentions a new CD is forthcoming and has one or two tracks from it.
1. Relax Your Mind - Leadbelly
2. Down on Me - Eddie Head and His Family
3. Cemetery Bound -
4. Fiddler's Dram - traditional
5. Farrell Blues - Son Sims and Charley Patton
6. Hoppin' Frog -
7. The Blood-Stained Bandits - Jimmie Strothers, Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, And Ballads
8. Cairo - Henry Spaulding, Henry Townsend
9. Pony Blues - Son House version
10. You Can Go On - Sounds like another Head Family song but isn't, I don't think
11. Fire Down Yonder - Don't know this. According to B&GR, recorded by Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers, Capitol City Four, Heavenly Gospel Singers. Done here with banjo and guitar.
12. Yellow Dog - Sam Collins
13. Jack, Can I Ride - traditional
14. Ezekiel's Wheel - traditional gospel. based on any particular version?
15. Forty-Four - Butch Cage & Willie B. Thomas. This was played on Roots of the Otis Bros show. Though I don't see a resemblance yet.
16. Come On, Boys, and Let's Go to Huntin' - Henry Truvillion, (from Deep River of Song: Black Texicans, Balladeers & Songsters of the Texas Frontier)
17. Death is Riding High - Reverend Gary Davis - "Sun Goin' Down" from "O, Glory"
18. Bald-Headed -
19. God Don't Change - Blind Willie Johnson
