Artist: Corey Harris
Album: Daily Bread
Bitrate: 191kbps avg
Label: Rounder Records
Genre: Blues
Size: 86 megs
Playtime: 1h 00min 04sec total
Rip date: 2005-06-03
Store date: 2005-06-07
Track List:
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01. Daily Bread 5:12
02. I See Your Face 3:25
03. Got To Be A Better Way 3:41
04. A Nickel And A Nail 4:20
05. The Sweetest Fruit 3:57
06. Mami Watu 3:26
07. Lamb's Bread 3:47
08. Just In Time 3:36
09. Khaira 3:46
10. Big String 5:46
11. More Precious Than Gold 5:14
12. The Bush Is Burning 3:54
13. The Peach 10:00
Release Notes:
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Most artists who take a spiritual journey back to their homeland usually return
with a somewhat bowdlerized version of their ancestryùthey may want to make the
connection with their roots, but time and place and circumstance often wear the
authenticity away. Then again, most artists are not Corey Harris, who has spent
the last decade forging a strange yet highly rewarding alliance between all
manner of indigenous American music. Corey is a scholar who, thank God, doesnÆt
play like one.
This Denver expat and reconstituted New Orleans resident went back to Africa
several times during and after the release of Martin ScorseseÆs documentary The
Blues in Æ03, and having done the field-recording thing with the aptly-titled
Mississippi To Mali, he came back home to create what his press calls a ônew
soundö out of his recent experiences.
WhatÆs startling, then, is the often Caribbean form this new sound takes,
especially rhythmically; although bookended by the easy stroll of the title
track and the modern griot fable of ôThe Peach,ö much of this set doesnÆt have
much to do with the blues in its modern American or primal African forms. This
may be HarrisÆ most island-tinged release yet.
The evidence abounds. ôLambÆs Breadö has a vintage Wailers righteousness, ôGot
To Be A Better Wayö buts up against ska, and, despite its title, ôKhairaö feels
like a samba, if a thoughtful one. (The post-9/11 diatribe ôThe Bush Is Burningö
cries out for a dub remix.) Even the more overtly bluesy tracks, like ôMore
Precious Than Gold,ö are awash in a ôHarder They Comeö era of early-Æ70s soul.
And the gentle ôThe Sweetest Fruitö feels like Wyclef Jean channeling Cat
Stevens.
There are exceptions, of course, like the aforementioned bookends, and the
Afro-blues hybrid ôMami Wataö (one of two tracks featuring HarrisÆ cultural
doppelganger, Olu Dara). And for all that, HarrisÆ songwriting skills still
remain the most potent weapon in his arsenal; what he says remains more
interesting than how he says it. ThatÆs no backhanded compliment, eitherùCorey
remains one of AmericaÆs more vital roots artists, so deep inside himself that
he remains uncategorizable. You may not know what to call this ônew sound,ö but
itÆs a cinch youÆll find yourself somewhere inside it.
...( v Topsite Scripts v2.0 )...
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