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The new CD by The Soul of John Black - the band project of John A. Bigham (Fishbone, Miles Davis, Nikka Costa) - opens with a spectacularly strong statement. "The Hole," a field-holler-inspired postmodern wail of blues anguish, tells the oldest story ever told:
I went down in the hole to see what I could see
When I got down in the hole, wasn't nobody but me
Shades of Townes Van Zandt's song of the same name - but only shades. Lyrically there isn't much more than the two lines quoted above to the nearly six-minute song, and it doesn't need any more. An elemental expression of the human condition, "The Hole" speaks of the urge to explore, the need for escape, and man's essential loneliness. I had to listen to the song three times before I could leave it and go on to the rest of the CD.
The creamy, slow "Moon Blues" follows, and then the darkly erotic "I Got Work":
I got some work I got to do
And it starts right here with loving you
Anyway you want me, anyway you need
I'm gon' put in some work, girl, and bring you to your knees
Yes, among other virtues, this CD is nice and dirty. But there's a good deal more to it than that. Imagine if Lenny Kravitz fully outgrew his fixation with adolescent rock star posing and listened to nothing but Bob Dylan and Johnnie Taylor for a year - maybe he'd come out with something like this music. (Maybe Lenny has - who knows? I can't say I've been following his career lately.)
"Good Girl" finds J.B. running trance-influenced beats under Chicago-style blues-rock, all swollen with thunderous soul harmonies. The more directly trance-y "Fire Blues" is a good showcase for the buttery Al Green tones in Bigham's vocals. Neither song has much structure. They're like the insistent crashing of waves as the tide comes in. "Moanin'," which is just that - wordless vocalizing, with acoustic guitar accompaniment - makes a very good entr'acte between the five songs that go before it and the five after. (There's an added short version of "The Hole" at the very end, for radio play I assume.)
The low-cut instrumental "Slipin' and Slidin'" (sic) smartly mixes acoustic guitar noodling, trance beats and feedback-y effects. "Swamp Thing" has elements of R&B and a suggestion of rap but sounds most of all like an acoustic interpretation of early ZZ Top. "Swamp thing, try to put your thing on me - Not this time."
The gentle, folksy drug-overdose tale "One Hit" echoes and updates Brewer & Shipley's classic "One Toke Over The Line" musically and thematically, while "Feelin's" dresses up Sly Stone funk in a coat of swampy soul, with irresistible results. Finally, "Deez Blues" gives the obligatory nod to Robert Johnson. "Oh Mr. Blues won't you leave me alone, oh get out of my home."
Don't take the assortment of historical references and comparisons above to mean that The Soul of John Black is just a pastiche of styles. Obvious influences and uneven songwriting don't take away from the force of originality that Bigham is massing here. It's blues for a new generation, crafted by a mature spirit who is adept at acoustic, electric, and slide guitars as well as soulful singing.
The CD puts Bigham and his crew at the forefront of a small but (one can hope) potent movement that's bringing blues up to date without sacrificing authenticity. To put it more positively, he's working towards a truly new sound, solidifying the fragile resonance between today's machine-tooled talent and the flesh-and-bones musical traditions of the past. Heady stuff, highly recommended.
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