Ian Siegal and the Mississippi Mudbloods - Candy Store Kid

Nugene Records

11 Tracks; 45:21

www.iansiegal.com

Ian Siegal is the only Brit blues man to have been nominated in the Blues Foundation's Blues Music Awards for Best Contemporary Blues Album. That accolade came in 2012 and related to the release of his much acclaimed last album The Skinny, recorded in North Mississippi with Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars as record producer who also played on the album. The album was recorded at the Dickinson Zebra Ranch Studio in Coldwater, Mississippi. Backing Siegal were the sons of some notable Mississippi blues men, including on guitar Robert Kimbrough, on guitar and bass Garry Burnside, and on drums Rod Bland. Also guesting were Alvin Youngblood Hart and Duwayne Burnside. Collectively the band was known as The Youngest Sons.

This time, Siegal has gone back to Zebra Ranch again with Cody Dickenson as producer but now with a band featuring Alvin Youngblood Hart on guitar and bass, Luther Dickinson, Cody’s brother on guitar and bass and with Cody Dickinson behind the drum kit, this time under the collective name of the Mississippi Mudbloods.

Siegal has acknowledged himself that this is a ‘very different’ album from the last one, although there are tinges of Mississippi Hill Country it does take a very different path. Always in danger of being over enthusiastic let me say that the music here is simply sensational. The CD starts with ‘Bayou Country’ a really enjoyable track with a contemporary country music tinge, and then moves to the first song written by Siegal himself. Called ‘I Am The Train’, the song is outstanding and will be IMHO, the subject of awards nominations (as will others on this CD – for example check out Rodeo - outstanding. The guitar work throughout the album is exemplary: as for example on ‘Kingfish’; slide with a real fire to it and great vocals from Siegal. Whatever else this is, it is NOT Mississippi Hill Country music. More like a mix of Louisiana swamp music and electric country blues. ‘The Fear’ is outstanding, with dark vocals and excellent production values. Strangely it is a cover of a little known Little Richard song that makes the album for me. To us in the early 21st Century the name ‘Green Power’ has an eco-sound to it – but it is about the greenback, not the green fields! The CD ends with Hard Pressed (subtitled What Da Fuzz)...The subtitle gives the funk away!

All in all a real winner here. It is my belief that in years to come, people will be referring to this one as a classic like they do Electric Ladyland or Texas Flood. I will eat my hat (as they say) if this one does not rack up a slew of well-deserved awards. Ian Siegal and his vision are where the blues is at in the second decade of the twenty first century. This is a MUST