Colin Linden – Easin’ Back To Tennessee (Crosscut Records).

Another one from the top German blues label, Crosscut. This time it’s much respected Canadian Colin Linden. Linden has been an in-demand session musician and has produced albums for The Band and Leon Redbone amongst others. He met Howlin’ Wolf at the age of seven and became friends with him until the Wolf’s death in 1976. Not surprisingly, Linden cites Howlin’ Wolf as his most significant inspiration. He opens this album with the eponymous title track, which is a Delta blues, written by Sleepy John Estes, with steel guitar and all of the classic stylings. This is a true blues with a strong vocal and lovely rolling guitar. This is followed by a well trodden blues theme on Go Back Old Devil. This is again in the classic Delta style and harks back to Robert Johnson. Blind Willie McTells’s Broke Down Engine is painfully slow and, in his wailing vocal, Linden upholds the Delta traditions more than most I’ve heard recently – Robert Johnson must be an influence too. The self-penned Nowhere To Go is another up-tempo song; just voice and guitar, this is a nimble fingered contemporary blues. The spiritual A True Friend Won’t Let You Down is just a lovely, well-executed song and T-Bone Burnett’s There Would Be Hell To Pay takes you to the other end of the spectrum with its speakeasy evoking images and tales of love and death.

Colin’s slide guitar gets another airing on You Can’t Get The Stuff No More and the happy aura surrounding this song gives it a jug band feel – very good. The happy, bouncy feeling continues with the instrumental, Paramount before we are treated to the highlight of the album. I don’t know if Keep It Clean is meant to be innuendo laden but I suppose that’s the songwriters’ (Tampa Red) talent. This is just a delight with lightning fast finger picking and a machine gun vocal delivery. Things are slowed right down to funereal pace for Champ. Electric guitar is introduced for the first time and it’s modern but with a classic feel. The downbeat lyric fits in so well. Son House’s Dry Spell Blues sees a welcome return to Delta blues and Linden plays this style so well. I love his acoustic slide style and a great example of this is on the spiritual, intense Trouble Soon Be Over – another highlight. He finishes with Tears Come Rolling Down and I knew there were some Robert Johnson influences in his playing somewhere. This is a downbeat finish but as the album has mainly been about classic blues themes I can think of no better way to wrap things up.

http://www.colinlinden.com/
http://www.crosscut.de/

Copyright David Blue 2006.