Classy trio come together to pay homage to traditional American roots, blues and country.
Andy Cohen, Eleanor Ellis and William Lee Ellis are all well-established roots, blues and folk artists in their own right who first came together in 1993 with their album, Preachin’ In The Wilderness. Now, 30+ years later, the trio have collaborated again with a 21-track album of old-time blues, gospel, ragtime and country songs. It is a heady mix of songs, traditional, self-penned and covers of the likes of Steve Earle and Scott Joplin.
Cohen is a finger style guitarist who was hugely influenced at the age of sixteen by the blues/gospel legend Rev Gary Davis and has devoted his musical life to the study and performance of pre-WW2 traditional blues and folk music. Louisiana native Eleanor Ellis has her own blues and gospel history and as well as appearing with myriad blues and gospel greats has also shone as a producer/editor of a blues documentary as well as stints at the New Orleans jazz museum. William Lee Ellis is another finger picking guitarist with his roots firmly in blues music with five albums to his name with his most recent, Ghost Hymns earning a Blues Music Award nomination for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year.
Unsurprisingly, Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard has a distinctly traditional feel to it and it doesn’t get much more authentic than opening track Columbus Stockade Blues, a song that can trace its roots back to a 1927 recording by Darby and Tarlton. Cohen describes the song as one of the first he memorised even though, he muses, Columbus Stockade is somewhere you really don’t want to get stuck in.
The trio alternate with lead vocals which gives subtle, yet distinctive differences to the tracks without ever getting away from the album’s overarching homage to old time and traditional American music. Eleanor leads on Shuckin’ Sugar, a Blind Lemon Jefferson song with a more recent arrangement by Englishman Simon Prager who acted as tour guide and host on a visit to London. Here, it is rendered as a beautifully nuanced and laid-back slice of blues and, for anyone looking to delve into sample what the album has to offer, then here, along with Steve Earle’s’ South Nashville Blues, is as good a place as any to start.
Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard could almost be considered a tribute to those early roots, blues, gospel and country singers who so memorably paved the way and inspired generations of artists that followed. Cohen, Ellis and Ellis have delivered an album dripping in history and tradition and, if that is where your musical love lies, then this will be a rare treat.
