12/1/2005

Tom Clarke

Mary Flower made quite an impact on me at the 1998 King Biscuit Blues Festival. So "regular Jane" in appearance, but man, she really knew the blues inside and out, playing impeccable guitar and relating tales like the best of them in a smooth, colorful contralto. Apparently never content to revisit the same old same old, this unassuming yet feisty blues lady found herself in a New Orleans studio a scant few months before Katrina and took full advantage of the city's riches. The resulting Bywater Dance is imbued with the kind of piping hot cadences that only the finest Crescent City jazz players can provide. Even the Piedmont finger-style expertise Flower displays on "Terminal Rag" is affected by Dr. Michael White's fanciful clarinet. And there are several other fine guitar pieces that light up the disc, too. Alongside tunes like "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues," with Jon Cleary's hammered ivories in front of a small army of pumping brass, or "Papa's on the Housetop," where Flower duels winningly with pianist Henry Butler over a cooking, bouncy beat, the album could very well add up to be my pick for blues disc of the year.