Leo Bud Welch - I Don't Prefer No Blues

Published Saturday 29th August 2015
Leo Bud Welch - I Don't Prefer No Blues
Leo Bud Welch - I Don't Prefer No Blues

STYLE: Blues
RATING 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 157689-23263
LABEL: Big Legal Mess
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

If the excellent 2014 'Sabougla Voices' gospel blues release saw Leo 'Bud' Welch in full on church mode, its followup sees the octogenarian Mississippi bluesman take up residence in juke joints and barrel houses with a collection of blues songs that celebrate the more carnal side of life. Not that this approach is anything new - many of Welch's blues predecessors had a knack of playing both sanctified and secular material in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible - and Welch does it in style. The man's gritty and weathered vocals still have the power of a man decades his junior and, together with some delightfully heavy guitarwork and a fantastically raw but top notch band behind him, good lovin' songs like "Girl In The Holler", "I Don't Know Her Name" and "Sweet Black Angel" see Welch send out the message that, whilst there may be snow on top of the mountain, there's still fire in his belly and every woman ought to know about it. Elsewhere, more considered numbers such as "So Many Turnrows" - a poignant reflection on Welch's life as field worker - and the stripped back Sharde Thomas duet "Poor Boy" plus an intense version of the Staples Singers song "Pray On" give this release a rounded feel.

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