Authentic pre-war country blues played by an acclaimed 12-string master.
This is Albright’s fourth album of acoustic country blues, played finger-picked style on a 12-string guitar. An acknowledged master of this style of playing, Albright doesn’t even own a 6-string. As the only contemporary player of the 12-string in this genre, he has been recognised for his mastery of the blues style as well as being a more than accomplished exponent of the 12-string acoustic; indeed, in 2019, he produced a 12-string guitar instructional video. His previous album, the critically acclaimed Detroit Twelve String: Blues & Rags, was released by Jack White’s Third Man Records.
Still based in Detroit, Blues for Dexter Linwood is named after the neighbourhood he lives in. His label, Misfortune Records, is a play on the legendary Detroit label Fortune Records, and this is its first release. The tracks are all covers, predominantly featuring cuts by the masters of pre-war country blues, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly and Mississippi John Hurt. The album was produced by Charlie Parr from Smithsonian Folkways. Alan Lomax, who originally began the task of documenting authentic folk music, established the original Folkways collection, later adopted and developed by the Smithsonian as a huge archive of authentic folk tracks. As Lomax was an early champion of Leadbelly, there is a pleasing circularity and rightness of fit to see Folkways working with Albright on this music.
Initial sessions were not generating the feel that was required, until Parr hit upon the idea of recording Albright in mono with a single microphone, pretty much the way most of the original recordings would have been made. The result is indeed striking in its very lo-fi authenticity. Albright’s vocals sit alongside the guitar in the recording and are suitably weathered and gnarly, with a real sense of empathy for the style of music and the covers he has selected. It has to be said, this music is a record of Albright’s playing more than a production, as Parr has acknowledged, “I didn’t produce anything, it was already there when I sat down and listened while Todd laid his fingers on the strings and released the blues from the air around us.”
To flesh the sound out slightly, Parr himself plays some additional slide guitar on three tracks, and Dave Hundrieser adds harmonica to four. The result is a tightly constructed album of authentic pre-war blues. There is nothing superfluous in the playing or singing. The album stands or falls then on the authenticity of the approach, which can’t be faulted. The selection of tracks to play has been carefully curated without perhaps falling back on the tracks well known to the casual blues fan by the chosen artists. One of the more contemporary tracks, If That Woman’s Love Was Whiskey by Paul Geremia, Albright’s mentor, stands out a little from the other tracks with slightly more space being left in the guitar playing, which is played with a slide. Even the vocals feel a little more relaxed and maybe even a little soulful.
The album may not serve to convince the casual listener for whom this style of music is new, but if you want to get a real feel for where the roots of much americana stems from or if you are an existing fan of pre-war acoustic blues, then this album by a master of his craft is a must.
