[rating=8.00]
Mike Eldred knows how to navigate the various hues of the blues. His band’s new album Baptist Town demonstrates this versatility while also proving a point — that is, that there’s no reason not to alter the template when the opportunity allows. Consequently, Eldred and company fully partake of that principle, rarely repeating themselves, and when they do, ensuring that they never sound redundant. It makes for a compelling LP, one which offers every opportunity to take the trio to a higher plain.
Recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis and featuring special guests John Mayer, Robert Cray and David Hidalgo, the album reflects its hallowed environs in an array of aural references, from the emphatic blues shuffle of “Hundred Dollar Bill,” to the blues/bluegrass hybrid that colors “Run Devil Run” and the assertive boogie that drives “Sugar Shake” and “Kill My Woman.” It’s also evident in the Cajun influenced “Bess” and the solemn call and response refrains of “Papa Legba,” “You’re Always There” and “Black Annie,” courtesy of a massed chorus that helps affirm the sobering scenarios. The gospel-like stomp of “Run Devil Run” even manages to provide historical context, referencing Robert Johnson’s alleged deal with the devil which supposedly occurred near the Baptist Town referenced in the title. Likewise, when Eldred affects a deep roots approach to the album’s sole cover, the Beatles standard “Can’t Buy Me Love,” the effect is far more ominous than the Fab Four ever imagined.
“Nobody cares about Baptist Town,” Eldred croons in the title track, a dark and wry commentary about the inequality that still dominates life in that particular part of the deep south. With its history of hatred and suffering, the message clearly goes far deeper than the music itself indicates. Ironically, it’s the album’s most muted offering — the delicate “Roadside Shrine” — that speaks the loudest, its subdued sentiments offering some sort of veiled reassurance. So too, it may be rich and riveting, but Baptist Town offers no immediate salvation.
