Reed Turchi may not be a household name, but for close to 10 years the guitarist and songwriter has been quietly leading something of a prolific career. At the core of every project and album he has taken on has been a devotion to the blues. Even though he is from North Carolina, Turchi has managed to continuously channel influences and sometimes even renditions of the North Mississippi Hill Country blues from the likes of RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Mississippi Fred McDowell among others. Turchi’s latest endeavor Midnight in Memphis might be his most adventurous effort to date.
Back in 2017, Turchi brought together 14 musicians (including himself), called them the Kudzu Choir, and recorded a live album of mostly improvised psychedelic blues. For Midnight in Memphis, he scaled things down to 7 musicians and brought the Choir into the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis. Created as part of the PBS series “The Sun Studio Sessions”, the eight songs on the album each showcase a different, eclectic take on blues, beginning with the juke joint rambler “Teacher’s Blues” with its greasy slide guitar, accents of saxophone, and boogie-woogie piano. This tune sets the course for what’s to come as the group dives into the gritty and danceable groove of “Do For You”, complete with a swanky saxophone solo and plenty of bluesy guitar shredding, before getting into raucous guitar playing and soulful backing vocals on “Honey Honey”. “Listen to the Wind” finds Turchi and co. getting into a dreamy shuffle that brings to mind the instrumental work of acts like Phil Cook and Hiss Golden Messenger, only to follow it up with one of the album’s most fascinating songs, “Discount Liquor Store”, which seems to meld African desert rock with a heavy drum beat and psych rock guitar playing. The moody soundscape of blues and eerie vocals on “Lord I’m So Glad I Don’t Crave Everything I See” is one of the album’s more slowburning tunes. Turchi keeps toning things down on the dark Southern folk of “The More I Think (The Less I Seem To Know)”, which also features some of the best harmonies on the album. The whole band comes together for the ethereal album closer “Patricia”, a truly far out groover that is equal parts gospel and slide guitar meditation.
Simultaneously rooted in tradition and a more contemporary take, Midnight in Memphis is an exciting addition to an impressive canon of music from Turchi, who plays the role of slide guitarist, singer, and some kind of devilish cross between a revival tent preacher and a conductor. Few artists have pushed so hard to keep this particular style of blues music alive, but luckily we have Reed Turchi to happily bear the torch. He definitely isn’t the only one out there – others include Cedric Burnside, Lightnin’ Malcolm, Luther and Cody Dickinson, and R.L. Boyce – but this new album proves Turchi is a tried and true loyalist even if he likes to offer his own spin on the blues.
