Charlie Musselwhite - Look Out Highway (140g, Crystal Green Vinyl)
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€55,00
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Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar – Charlie Musselwhite
Bass – Randy Bermudes
Drums, Percussion – June Core
Guitar – Matt Stubbs*
Guitar, Piano, Organ, Recorded By – Chris "Kid" Andersen*
1 LP, Gatefold jacket
Limited to 500 copies
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 140g
Record color : Crystal Green Vinyl
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : unspecified
Label : 40 Below
Original Label : 40 Below
Recorded at The Clarksdale Soundstage
Produced by Gary Vincent, Henri Musselwhite, Chris "KId" Andersen
Executive-Producer – Henri Musselwhite
Mastered by Mark Chalecki
Originally released in 2025
Tracks :
Side A
- Look Out Highway
- Sad Eyes
- Storm Warning
- Baby Won't You Please Help Me
- Hip Shakin' Mama
- Highway 61
Side B
- Ready For Times To Get Better
- Ramblin' Is My Game
- Blue Lounge
- Ghosts In Memphis
- Open Road
Reviews :
« Charlie Musselwhite released the acoustic Mississippi Son in 2022; it was a towering achievement in a career full of them. It took home a Blues Music Award for Best Acoustic Blues Album. In 2023, he and Dynatones released the rowdy, undernoted Curtain Call. That year Musselwhite also played the role of Alvin Reynolds in Martin Scorsese's epic Killers of the Flower Moon.
Musselwhite's Look Out Highway marks the very first time in his long career that he's used his touring band in the studio. He, guitarist Matt Stubbs, drummer June Core, bassist Randy Burmudes, and Kid Andersen on piano and Hammond B-3 recorded the set at Andersen's Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California as well as in Musselwhite's new home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Andersen engineered the set and assisted co-producers Henrietta "Henri" Musselwhite -- Charlie's spouse, manager, and constant companion -- and Gary Vincent.
He composed the opening title track from an earworm gospel lick he'd been carrying around a while. His wailing harp meets dirty, distorted electric guitars, a clattering kick drum, and snare. His signature vocal is high, lonesome, and weary but still defiant. "Sad Eyes" is a snarling midtempo ballad. Next to a pumping piano and greasy, gritty electric guitar, Musselwhite rides a choogling blues-rock groove into an electric blues hypnosis session. His harp underscores the protagonist's amorous intentions with a killer, moaning solo. "Storm Warning" is pure juke-joint strut. The band sound like they're onstage as their exuberant boss grabs the reins and drives them hard. Other highlights include the raw, infectious shuffle of "Highway 61." Many of these songs are autobiographical and are woven into an iconic blues vocabulary that melds traditions from the Delta, Memphis, Chicago, and the West Coast. On "Baby Won’t You Please Help Me," he delivers the chorus, "I was born in Mississippi/I was raised in Tennessee/Seems like every place I've been/The blues keep trailing me…," in a revved-up shuffle with Stubbs' guitar swaggering atop Andersen's wooly piano. Singer/songwriter Edna Nicole Luckett performs a righteous duet with Musselwhite on the swaggering "Waitin' for Times to Get Better." The spine-slipping juke-joint instrumental "Blue Lounge" walks the line between the street and the lounge with narcotic slide guitars and a harmonica wail that moans like a midnight train whistle. Musselwhite growls about being haunted on "Ghosts of Memphis" with a guest spot from Memphis hip-hop star Al Kapone rapping across a snaky guitar-and-organ chug. Closer "Open Road" sees Andersen doubling on piano and guitar in a roadhouse shuffle buoyed by a bumping bass in a nearly laconic vocal and a harp solo that swings, swoops, and dives. Look Out Highway, like Mississippi Son before it, reveals the artist as a hungry creator, pushing the blues harder into the 21st century while retaining its traditions and repurposing them in new ways. Quite literally, at 81, Musselwhite has never sounded stronger or better. Let's hope he brings this band back into the studio -- and soon. » AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek
Rating:
Discogs : 4.5 / 5 ; AllMusic : 4 / 5