Vizztone (inscription)
November 19, 2023 (released)
November 19, 2023
He has also been heavily involved as Music Director for The Pinetop Perkins Workshop Experience – an annual blues music education workshop held in Clarksdale, Mississippi, organized by The Pinetop Perkins Foundation. Professional blues musicians from around the world teach young people the tradition and instruments of blues music: guitar, drums, bass, harmonica, piano and voice.
Not surprisingly, this is a Blues album. Not the shiny blues of Joe Bonamassa or the blues/rock of Walter Trout but the edgy, energetic and heartfelt Blues of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Perkins and Willie Dixon and so many others.
It's not a simple or easy listen, but when Margolin sings about “One less Bluesman on the street this year” (“Mean Old Chicago”) you hear and feel the loss as if it's happening to you.
The album features a number of self-penned numbers and covers, but all in Margolin's very distinct style and voice. His guitar playing is bright, the notes pounding and individual and his slide playing leaves you in no doubt that he was the voice behind many of Muddy's later numbers. Every note and harmony was played by Margolin himself.
Covers numbers like 'Going Down To Main St.' by Muddy Waters. – powerful slide playing here – and 'Lonely Man Blues' (which he co-wrote with Muddy) as well as Willie Dixon's 'Who' and Jimmy Rodgers' 'Hard Working Man'. The surprise comes with a version of The Band's “Shape I'm In” done as a Blues with 4-part harmony.
The album is a blast from start to finish. Real Blues, played with flair and flair for the Bluesmen of yesteryear. It made me dive back into some old recordings and revisit the Blues as it should be.
