Chris Cotton's debut album is as laid back as a Sunday afternoon in Lulu, Mississippi on a steamy July afternoon. Cotton can drop Delta guitar licks like a rabid rooster that's gone mad in the barnyard of Life. Produced by former Squirrel Nut Zipper front man, Jimbo Mathus, Cotton records with old time microphones and tube amplifiers to reproduce the long lost sound of the Delta blues. His vocals are drenched in smoke and canned heat, and not only can he sing the blues with authority, he can write some great country blues. "Morgan City Mississippi" chugs along with a steady snare beat that peculates a rhythm of toe-tapping blues boogie, that defies a listener not to shake his or her booty. Cotton also covers Willie McTell's "Crapshooter Blues," Skip James' "I'm So Glad" and John Hurts' "Louis Collins." So throw on your blue jean overalls, slip into your alligator shoes, spray on some Hai Karate, grab your loaded dice, throw this disc on and head your funky butt South, to the Delta. (www.yellowdogrecords.com)
