Catfish Keith – Reefer Hound (Viper Songs Revisited)
Format: CD – Digital / Label: Catfish Records
Releasedatum: 6 juli 2018

Tekst: Iain Patience

Following on from his last album, ‘Mississippi River Blues‘, a genuinely excellent release a mere year ago, US resonator and slide-master, Catfish Keith returns with another offering that illustrates just how important and significant a player he really can be. In reality, like much of this guy’s output, there’s virtually nothing to criticise here, and he again roars along full-tilt, with some simply astonishing string-bends and powerful music.

Catfish Keith is already a firm favourite with the acoustic blues music crowds worldwide. With ‘Reefer Hound’, he again throws his hat into the ring to deliver an album that reflects his love for an original twist and take on a range of blues classics always matched by his strong vocals and wonderfully inventive fretwork.  With sixteen tracks to choose from, this is an album that truly bursts at the seams with startling, blues mastery, a heady, always enjoyable mix of material with its roots back in the 1920s and 1930s blues and ragtime world, alongside a range of tracks written by Keith himself. As usual, Keith’s guitar takes centre-stage, with the string-bends, especially on the lower end, generally never short of jaw-dropping. If anyone could bend a steel hawser musically, it must be this guy.

Catfish Keith’s previous offering earned him a place at the Memphis Blues Awards top table, and Grammy nomination, though – perhaps surprisingly – he didn’t pick up a first prize award in 2018. With ‘Reefer Hound’, he could yet again be Memphis-bound. And this time gain that well-earned award he so richly deserves. This guy and this release are both keepers. Get out and grab a copy whenever you can.


Tracks:
01. Walk Across The Ocean
02. Blotted Out My Mind
03. Put On A Buzz
04. Lotus Blossom
05. Texas Tea Party
06. Jack I’m Mellow
07. Weed
08. Willie The Chimney Sweeper
09. Cool Can Of Beer
10. Weed Smokers Dream Why Don’t You Do Right
11. Back In Nagasaki
12. Reefer Hound
13. Getting Away With Something
14. Reefer Head
15. Mr. Crump Don’t Like It
16. Knockin’ Myself Out

Website: Catfish Keith


Ook op Blues Magazine ...