The CDs capture the storytelling, joking, and informative song introductions that characterized these informal shows. Broonzy's preamble to Bessie Smith's "Back-Water Blues" is heart-stopping in the context of the Katrina recovery. Poor people got the worst of the disastrous Mississippi River floods of the 1920s, with some starving to death waiting to be rescued, and little has changed. Also, the great North Sea Flood of 1953, in which over 1800 Dutch lost their lives, had occurred only days before these concerts.
No doubt about it, Big Bill had his callused fingers on the pulse of what life was all about. "'John Henry,'" he says, "that's what they call an 'American folk song'... in Mississippi, where I came from, we call it a work song. [But]," he assures the crowd, "I love to play it, don't worry about a thing."
A few songs appear twice, a few others in fragmentary form. There's a lot of talking from Bill and a bit of appreciation from an actor named Otto Sturman. So don't expect two hours of pure music. Instead, what you get are big chunks of the way Broonzy's concerts really went down. They're well worth the price of admission.
Jake Shimabukuro, Gently Weeps
Uke master Jake Shimabukuro — "one ukelele-playing mofo" as Blogcritics Fearless Leader puts it — has a new solo album out and it's a fine one. Eschewing the portentious arrangements he is sometimes prone to, Jake gives us twelve tracks of the uke, the whole uke and nothing but the uke, plus five accompanied but homey "bonus" tracks." He plays many of his own compositions, a few standards from the pop and classical canon, and what has become his signature cover tune, George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
With this small, four-stringed, two-octave instrument, Shimabukuro rocks, croons, and soars with a sound that's as lush as his technique is astounding. When he wails on "Grandma's Groove" and "Blue Roses Falling" you keep expecting the instrument to shatter, while "Gently Weeps," "Ave Maria" and "Heartbreak/Dragon" are delicately beautiful. Selections like the Japanese folk song "Sakura" and the jazz standard "Misty" further demonstrate the well-roundedness of his musicianship.
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