Whoa.
Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner.
Old Gray Mule hail from Lockhart Texas ( home of the Caldwell County Courthouse ) which lies just due south of Austin and to the right of San Marcos Texas zip code 78666. Scott H Biram Country. Old Gray Mule is made from scratch out of C.R. Humphrey on guitar/groove w/Joe Falco on drums/groove, one part shiny silver spoonful of Tejas-era ZZ Top, a fat t of stanky dope-era SRV ( 'tho no strats were used in this recording...thank gawd ), some Hooker boogie and a tight fistfull of R.L. Burnside-style grooves. You throw down some really fine Junior Kimbrough cum Mississippi Gabe Carter open deep reverb sugar rolled loose while rockin' it tighter than a dirty Left Lane Cruiser VS grrreasy Hillstomp midnite piney woodser. Brilliant stuff recorded totally live. Ten songs in two hours and forty-five minutes with no gawdamn effects or affects or any other BS to get in the way. Just delicious tight hard blue North Mississippi hillcountry grooves by way of Texas boogie. That's just about all you need ain't it? Y'all seen that pic on the inside of the 'Tops Tres Hombres album? They sound like that. Old Gray Mule kick it hard, let it hang, let it breath, and you just keep diggin' the potlatch. But wait...did I mention OGM is all instrumental? Except for one track which features Mississippi Gabe Carter. But hell, Old Gray Mule's sound is so taut, so arresting, it took three or four listens before it really dawned on me to think, wait a minute...what the? Cool! This is a fresh olde sound that I cannot wait to blast more of. The feel good hit of the the end of the summer. Get some!
Old Gray Mule's C.R. Humphrey hooked me up with a couple non-album tracks to share with you.
Here's the story on 'em:
Issaquena Stomp mp3
Put The Foot To Him mp3
Here's the story on 'em:
"Here are 2 tunes recorded live on night 1 of our Junior Kimbrough birthday and CD release party. Both tunes will be on the next album "40 Nickels For A Bag Of Chips" which we ought to get around to recording sometime in October or November. Issaquena Stomp is a tune we improvised behind Pat "Rockadaddy" Murphy at Club 2000 during the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale. Club 2000 is on Issaquena Ave, and we played there for 4-5 hours opening for T Model. Put the Foot To Him is a song I wrote about a day before the Kimbrough's got to my house, so this recording is actually the second time we'd ever played it and the first time live. Kinney told me a story about a fight he had to break up at his Pop's juke joint and one of the punchlines of the story was him telling a gal wearing pointy shoes to put the foot to the guy who had been whoopin up on her who was now lying on the floor against the pool table. Hope you enjoy 'em."
Put The Foot To Him mp3
