Billy Proulx - ...and Nothing Else (2010)

Tracklist

01. Ticket Agent
02. Baby Let's Hit the Road
03. Confessin" the Blues
04. When My Baby Left Me
05. They"re Red Hot
06. Make Me a Pallet on the Floor
07. You Don't Know My Mind
08. You Get a Line, I'll Get a Pole
09. From Four 'Till Late
10. Love in Vain
11. U.S. 61
12. Everyday I Have the Blues
13. Don't Want You Cuttin" Off Your Hair
14. Ramrod Daddy
15. Payday
16. Big Boss Man
17. I Told You So
18. All They Could See Was the Gray
19. 32-20
20. Sweet Home Chicago
21. Come On in My Kitchen

Billy's warm personal style is beautifully captured by producer Olises Naranjo and engineer Guilherme Geyer. The four originals out of the twenty one cuts are outstanding with the whimsical, rambling "Baby Let's Hit the Road" leading the way. Billy is an artist with an uncanny ability to cover songs and make them is own while maintaining authenticity. Willie McTell's "Ticket Agent", and Sonny Boy Williamson's " When My Baby Left Me" are excellent examples of this approach, and results are both vivid and mesmerizing. The performances are all one take, voice and guitar, (sometimes dobro, sometimes harmonica) with editing only for the comments Billy makes proceeding some songs. The finger picking and flat picking is reminiscent of Mississippi John Hurt or even Doc Watson. There is also a little slide work on "U.S. 61 "and "Come on in My Kitchen" that recalls Robert Johnson.

The fact that there are five Robert Johnson songs on this CD was the subject of much discussion prior to mastering. Billy said keep 'em. And his most die-hard fans will be glad. His treatment of Robert is always with much care and reverence. This is a CD for Billy's fans. The one's that show up at the Buffalo for Blues Monday but it is one that everyone who loves this kind of music will thoroughly enjoy!

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