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Authenticity can be a tricky thing, and attempts to replicate a bygone era can quickly slip into cliché and pastiche. Bluesmen are nothing without a verifiable history of the doggone, no-hope, down and out blues. I don’t want to know how he does it, I just know that listening to the sinister calypso of ‘Hell’ sound-alike ‘Love Me Or Die’, the carnivale jazz of the title track and the grainy samba of ‘Brave Son Of America’ doesn’t just suspend your belief, it seats you front and centre in his debaucherous speakeasy.
I’m partly posting this because I think CW Stoneking is unreal and will likely pick up this album at sometime in the future. But mostly, I just love the language in this review! Have a read, it’s pretentious, it’s a little bit ridiculous, but it’s beautiful wordsmanship. “Andrew” – whoever you are, I salute you.
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