Corey Harris Downhome Sophisticate CD

Personnel includes: Corey Harris (vocals, guitar, lap steel guitar);
Jamal Millner (vocals, guitar, mandolin); Rob Jackson, Daniel Norman (spoken vocals); Lytle Henry (various instruments); Olu Dara (trumpet); John D'earth, Mark Maynard, Jeff Decker (horns); Henry Butler (organ, keyboards);
Vic Brown, Houston Ross (bass); Johnny Gilmore (drums); Darrell Rose (percussion); Davina Jackson, Darita Jackson (background vocals).
Engineers include: Jeff Juliano, Jeff Bagby, Steve Van Dam.
Recorded at Haunted Hollow, Charlottesville, Virginia and The Dojo, Sperryville, Virginia; Henry Productions, New York, New York.
Few artists reflect the breadth of black music as vividly as Corey Harris, who performs at the peak of his strength throughout Downhome Sophisticate. The overall feel is rural, with plenty of slide guitar slithering over raw, live rhythms. The hooks have a timeless feel, as on "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning," with its rootsy gospel vocal motif and an implied handclap beat over a "My Sharona" hook. But Harris nods as well toward acoustic folk-blues, softened and broadened on the solo track "Capitaine" by an almost John Redbourne feel (which owes a lot in itself to Son House). Instrumental tracks evoke images nearly as clearly as those with words; the jump boogie bounce of "BB" paints a picture of a Southern roadhouse on a Saturday night. But when Harris adds lyrics they enhance this eloquence, as on "Fire," whose references to Babylon, bloodshed, and perditional flames project an ominous, apocalyptic power. It's an easy leap for Harris from folklore to urgent urban settings; his depiction of a police car as a fearsome, prowling Biblical beast makes "Santoro" especially disturbing. The fact that Harris also borrows from Mexican and Latino traditions, especially on "Sista Rose" and the sensuous "Black Maria," makes the point that African-American culture, the center of Western pop, abuts multiple styles and is able to draw from each with equal ease. In the end, the title says it all: This is music both primitive and elusive, easy to absorb and more difficult to play than it seems. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk
Corey Harris emerged in the '90s as one of the most promising and inventive young blues artists to appear in quite some time, mixing his acoustic country blues with New Orleans-style horns for a unique sound. Subsequent work found him introducing full electric band instrumentation and a mix of R&B, rock, funk and even reggae inflections. This album builds upon those developments while coming at the blues from a standpoint that's simultaneously grittier and quirkier.
While there's no denying the authenticity of Harris's roots, the combination of driving slide guitar and left-field tone/attitude occasionally suggest early Beck jamming with the North Mississippi All-Stars. Amid all the furor, Harris still finds time for reflective acoustic guitar instrumentals like "Capitaine" and the lilting, highlife-tinged "Sista Rose." For the most part though, the blend of blues foundations and unpretentious modernism creates a new, entirely organic paradigm that announces Harris as one of the most important roots artists of the 21st century.Rolling Stone (5/23/02, p.81) - 4 out of 5 stars - "...Harris takes several stabs at breaking the mold-encrusted goober dust spread around the bedrock of modern blues variations..."
Q (8/02, pp.124,126) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Weaving his slide-guitar R&B basics around all manner of rippling juju, bouncy ska and chain-gang mantras...his approach is always heartfelt..."
Living Blues (7-8/02, p.41) - "...His overall theme remains powerful throughout and his facility in the diverse styles he's chosen keeps his vision honed and true."