Russ Preston - Back Home To The Blues (2010)

Tracklist

01. Clarksdale Blues
02. Baby's Gone
03. Back Home To the Blues
04. Gotta Quit My Evil Ways
05. Welcome Back Baby
06. Sweetest Girl You Ever Saw
07. Monkey Girl
08. Gone Like An Angel
09. One Last Request
10. You're So Bad
11. Only Twenty One
12. Runnin' Down The Highway
13. Foolin' Yourself
14. Getting Acquainted With The Blues


Back in high school and college, I was playing a lot of blues. Gus Cannon, Jim Kweskin, Dave Van Ronk, Muddy Waters, and Delbert McClinton, to name a few, were predominant influences in the kind of songs I liked and played. At some point I started writing my own songs in the contemporary folk style, using a more formal language with a consious striving for poetic expression. It was at another point, a few years ago, that the muse began leading me back to the blues, hence the title "Back Home To The Blues". This album represents an effort to go deeper into the bottomless well of that music.
I heard Son House say once, "There ain't but one kind of blues, and that consisted between male and female that's in love". While that may be debatable, it was in that spirit that the songs on this album were written. With its direct style of language making it less prone to the pitfalls or sentimentality, the blues gave me a voice to get across what I wanted to say. The primary aim of this album, however, is to entertain. It's a great party album, road album, and lift you above the pain of all the screw ups in your love life album. Adam Gussow, the great blues harp player and teacher, pointed out that, while having the blues is so much about holding on to that grievance, playing the blues is all about letting it go. It seems to me that the same goes for the listening. So put on this CD, kick back and let it go.

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