Album: Heritage Blues Orchestra, And Still I Rise (Raisin' Music)

And Still I Rise features mostly old blues material given a serious jolt of modernist energy, but without sacrificing any of the original character.

The Heritage Blues Orchestra are like a more potent Carolina Chocolate Drops, their basic guitar, harmonica and handclap grooves given further colour and character by bustling drums and the inventive horn arrangements of French saxist Bruno Wilhelm. Their potent thump, twang and honk injects wallop into Son House's "Clarksdale Moan" and a fast, hard-rolling feel to Muddy Waters's "Catfish Blues". Elsewhere, railroad shuffles, swampy slide-guitar throbs, gospel call-and-response chants and a reggae-like take on Rosco Gordon's jump-blues slouch are applied. The results are never less than infectious.

DOWNLOAD THIS Clarksdale Moan; C-Line Woman; Catfish Blues; Get Right Church