Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite … again! At 78, Musselwhite shows with Mississippi Son that he is still in peak form and not ready for retirement any time soon. In fact, this simple, unvarnished effort may rival his best releases ever.
The grand master of living blues harp players, Musselwhite’s first album, Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite’s Southside Band, hit the streets back in 1967. Along with contemporaries like Paul Butterfield, Musselwhite embraced the blues at a time in the 1960s when any white blues musician risked being labelled an imitator or, worse, an exploiter of the art form pioneered by African-Americans. But Musselwhite, originally from Mississippi himself, revered the music and earnestly pursued excellence.
Through many recordings, and many years of hard living, Musselwhite has persevered. He recorded steadily throughout the 1970s, but his productivity fell off in the 1980s. In 1987, he hit bottom and quit drinking, inspired by the courage of “Baby Jessica” McClure, the young Texas girl who captured the nation’s attention when she was trapped at the bottom of the well. (He tells the story in the song “The Well,” off the 2011 album of the same name.)
In the 1990s, Musselwhite made several outstanding albums, including Signature and In My Time, for Alligator Records, but he really hit stride in the 2000s, with his outstanding Sanctuary in 2004, and then Delta Hardware in 2006. After The Well, he collaborated with Ben Harper for the first time on the well received Get Up! in 2013. He would collaborate with Harper again, releasing No Mercy in This Land in 2018 and then with Elvin Bishop on 100 Years of Blues in 2020.
Until now, my own favorite Musselwhite album has been Sanctuary. The crusty, mostly acoustic Mississippi Son may have already replaced it (though admittedly, ‘recency bias’ may be playing a part here). The intimate, down home feel on Mississippi Son is a little bit magical. The reason it’s so intimate is that, well, it is – Musselwhite plays all the music, including guitars and blues harmonica, himself, with accompaniment from Barry Bays on Bass and Ricky “Quicksand” Martin on drums. Known as the blues world’s senior on blues harp, Musselwhite shows he’s an exceptional guitarist as well.
Along with a few traditional songs, like Joe Lee Williams’ “Crawling King Snake,” Musselwhite offers a swath of his own songs on Mississippi Son, including a stripped down reimagining of “My Road Lies in Darknes,” below, which he first recorded on Sanctuary. Every one of Musselwhite’s own songs tells a story. There are so many great songs on Mississippi Son that it’s hard to pick out a favorite, but check out “Blues Up the River,” “Stingaree,” “Blues Gave Me a Ride,” “Drifting from Town to Town,” or “A Voice Foretold.”
About the author: Bill Wilcox is a roots music enthusiast recently relocated from the Washington, DC area to Philadelphia, PA and back again.