Personnel: Charlie Musselwhite (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Chris Andersen (guitar); Randy Bermudes (bass guitar); June Core (drums, percussion).
Recording information: The Plant Recording, Sausalito, CA.
Like traditional country and roots reggae, blues is a genre for which purists tend to turn to past masters, dismissing "new traditionalists" as mere imitators. But legendary harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite is not only keeping the classic blues flame alive, he is stoking the fire with everything he's got. DELTA HARDWARE, the artist's 2006 release, is as raw and faithful a take on the meaning of the blues as anything that's come along in a while.
Musselwhite has been going strong since the late 1960s, and shows no signs of relenting on DELTA HARDWARE. Backed by a white-hot band consisting solely of a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer, Musselwhite unleashes a primitive, hypnotic blues wail full of grit, passion, and pain that sounds like it came straight from the dirt. Blues purists have reason to rejoice.
What the critics say...
Living Blues (p.52) - "Musselwhite returns to his electrified, native Mississippi sound on DELTA HARDWARE....Musselwhite sings as the band slyly rumbas underneath."
