Product Description
CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE - LOOK OUT HIGHWAY
COMING MAY 16, 2025, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY!
CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE
Look Out Highway
Forty Below Records
The Ace of Harps’ Forty Below debut is a follow up to his acclaimed Mississippi Son from 2022 (Alligator). Recorded at Greaseland , the overall sound on the 11 tunes is raw, uncluttered, and muscular. Accompanying Musselwhite’s raucous harp and gritty vocals are drummer/percussionist June Core, bassist Randy Bermedes, guitarist Matt Stubbs, and guitarist/keyboardist Kid Andersen. The title track,“ Ramblin’ Is My Game,” “Highway 61,” and “Open Road” have recurrent themes of wanderlust, departure from a bad situation, search for better times, and being a stranger in strange land that have appeared on previous recordings.
Three tunes are about three different women. The funky twister “Hip Shakin’ Mama,’” a staple in blues lore, celebrates the title character’s sensual dancing and sexual charm. The “storm” in “Storm Warning” is the ominous return of a former lover and all the trouble she will bring. The moody “Sad Eyes” about a chance encounter with an alluring mystery woman has a swamp soul vibe in which Musselwhite declares, “You look so lonely, your eyes look kind of sad, it ain’t love baby, but it ain’t bad.”
Musselwhite’s 1967 Vanguard debut Stand Back! changed my life 58 years ago. Here, he reprises “Baby Won’t You Please Help Me,” the opening track on Stand Back!, the very first tune I ever heard by Musselwhite. Mussewhite’s slide guitar is highlighted on the slow rolling instrumental “Blue Lounge,”which is reminiscent of Chuck Berry’s instrumental “Deep Feeling.” “I’m Ready For Things To Get Better” is a mid-tempo soul-rocker that expresses tentative hope in these chaotic times and features a vocal interlude by Edna Nicole and a duet with Musselwhite.
The most unusual tune and potential song of the year candidate is the jangling “Ghosts In Memphis.” The artist known as Memphis Charlie see ghosts (of friends and fellow artists) with every visit to Bluff City. Musselwhite exclaims several times “I’ve been diagnosed, I’m not crazy, all my friends are ghosts”; Memphis rapper Al Kapone interjects a brief rap about Memphis music towards the song’s end. Look Out Highway makes it clear that at age 81 Musselwhite’s playing and singing are undiminished on this early candidate for Traditional Blues Album of the Year.
– Thomas J. Cullen III