In a town with more blues bands than you can shake a porkpie hat at, the Bluff City Backsliders truly stands out as something unique. Formed in 1999 as a loose blues jam event at Handy's Blues Hall on Beale Street, the Backsliders eventually took shape as a bona fide band, specializing in a wide range of early-20th Century American music styles - everything from jug band music and medicine show tunes to old-time country and early blues. The outfit also eventually settled on a large, steady lineup that today includes Jason Freeman on guitar and lead vocals, Mark Lemhouse on slide, Michael Graber on mandolin and kazoo, Mike Powers on trombone, Clint Wagner on fiddle, John Stubblefield on bass, Adam Woodard on keys and Steve Barnat on percussion.

Though live the Backsliders can shift through an astonishing array of styles, sometimes within the same song, for its debut CD on its Yellow Dog label, the band has chosen to lean toward the blues side of things. "Bluff City Backsliders" the disc features the band's takes on a dozen early pre-war (often pre-World War I) blues tunes by the likes of Charlie Patton, W. C. Handy and, perhaps the band's most obvious musical ancestors, the Memphis Jug Band. Played in a more driving sort of string-band style, the record is a true nostalgia trip reminiscent of recent bands such as Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Asylum Street Spankers. (Man, I'd like to see that triple bill.)

The Backsliders jump out of the gate on the album opener, Howlin' Wolf's .44 Blues, a track that gets its tension from the fact that the crack rhythm section doesn't always feel like it's in control of the thing. The song also introduces us to Freeman's vocals; his pinched tenor throughout the record perfectly evokes the era the Backsliders are paying tribute to without ever sounding forced or kitschy. As for the rest of the personnel, they all get their moments to shine, but the biggest revelation may be the slide work of Lemhouse, who with his side group the Handy Three was a finalist at this year's International Blues Challenge and who will release his own solo record on Yellow Dog later this summer. Throughout the record, Lemhouse provides some of the tastiest bits, really standing out as he duels with the other soloists on the closing track, a cover of Sleepy John Estes's Everybody Ought To Make A Change Sometime.

The Bluff City Backsliders will play the WEVL-FM 90 Summer Concert tonight at the Young Avenue Deli.