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James 'Blood' Ulmer - Birthright CD Cover Art CD music music CDs songs album

James 'Blood' Ulmer Birthright CD

 James 'Blood' Ulmer Discography of CDs
5 stars (1 Customer Review)

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Since the end of the last decade, James Blood Ulmer has been involved in a conscious investigation of the blues as a force for reinvention. On various labels and with a varying group of musicians, Blood has fused, melded, and strained the genre through everything from funk to psychedelic rock and jazz with mixed but always provocative results. Guitarist and producer Vernon Reid has been a constant on Ulmer's last two offerings: 2001's Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions and 2003's No Escape from the Blues: The Electric Ladyland Sessions. The quest continues on Birthright, and in some senses the stakes are even higher because this is a completely solo recording. Reid produces but doesn't perform. Ulmer is the only musician on the entire record. He plays guitars and flute, and he sings. Stripped to the bone, swampy, spooky, and sexy, Birthright is alternately jagged and flowing; it goes into the heart of the blues as Blood experiences it. Ten of the 12 tunes here are originals, either written in or transformed for the idiom. The set opens with "Take Me Back to the Church," and the familiar, dark, haunting harmolodic drone ushers in an entirely new take on the Delta pedigree. Going into the heart of music's origins -- the church -- he splits it wide open. He utterly revises "Where Did All the Girls Come From," a track originally performed on Free Lancing. His staccato multi-string lead playing offers chunky, riff-like figures as the vocals dig into the spaces between them. The rhythmic intensity is hypnotic. This doesn't mean he can't play it straight, as the strolling "I Can't Take It Anymore" attests. It uses the I-IV-V progression throughout, with embellishments only as one line bleeds into the next. On Willie Dixon's "I Ain't Superstitious," he brings the eerie, haunting atmosphere back into the tune. No rave-up workout, Blood's relaxed delivery allows his snaky, warm guitar to weave its spell on the listener as his voice hovers just outside the beat, zeroing in on the complex paradox at the heart of the song's lyric. Following a few tracks in, "The Evil One" is the Dixon song's twin, with its foreboding message, footboard rhythmic attack, and low-string dronescape. The folk song storytelling blues of "Geechee Joe" evokes the spirit of Leadbelly with its meandering, poignant tale. In Blood's hands, "Sittin' on Top of the World" isn't so much a raucous party tune that celebrates the disappearance of a lover; it's a slow, labyrinthine tune of acceptance and discovery. The guitar acts as the singer's foil, pushing forward, pulling back, and ultimately underscoring the truth as it is revealed in the grain of the protagonist's voice. Birthright is the album Ulmer should have made years ago. All that matters is that listeners have it now. It's a shining star in his catalog and a chillingly intimate portrait of his expansive vision and singular talent. ~ Thom Jurek

Live Recording

Recording information: Gigantic Studios, New York, NY (2004).

Photographer: Alan Nahigian.

Personnel: James Blood Ulmer (vocals, guitar, flute); James Blood Ulmer.

Audio Mixer: Billy Pavone.

Down Beat (p.73) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "[A] 12-song inquiry into blues spirituality....BIRTHRIGHT is one those rare albums of solo voice and guitar in the blues canon that remains consistently involving from beginning to end."
JazzTimes (p.116) - "[With] haunted and hypnotizing lyrics delivered from a set of ragged and raw vocal cords..."
Living Blues (pp.40-41) - "It's refreshing to find an artist in any genre - especially the blues - who actually takes seriously matters of the soul and human condition."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.60) - Ranked #7 in Mojo's "Top Ten Blues Albums Of 2005."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.114) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Thick as molasses, aromatic as cigar smoke, Ulmer's voice has an eerie beauty..."
Birthright Music


Detailed Birthright Music Information



List Price $16.98 (You save $3.53)
Category Rock/Pop Albums, Jazz Instrument CDs, Blues, Guitar, Jazz
Label Hyena
Orig Year 2005
All Time Sales Rank   27928  
CD Universe Part number 6861641
Catalog number 9335
Discs 1
Release Date May 24, 2005
Studio/Live Studio
Mono/Stereo Stereo
Producer Vernon Reid; Vernon Reid
Engineer Billy Pavone; Billy Pavone
Personnel James 'Blood' Ulmer - vocals, guitar, flute
James 'Blood' Ulmer Birthright Songs


James 'Blood' Ulmer Birthright Album Track Listing



1.Take My Music Back to the Church
2.I Can't Take It Anymore
3.Where Did All the Girls Come From
4.I Ain't Superstitious
5.White Man's Jail
6.High Yellow
7.Evil One, The
8.Geechee Joe
9.Love Dance Rag
10.Sittin' on Top of the World
11.My Most Favorite Thing
12.Devil's Got to Burn
Birthright Music Review


Customer Birthright Reviews 




Average Rating: (5 out of 5 stars) 5 stars

5 stars Ulmer rules
If you want a record that takes you right back from where it started from this is the one to buy.Mr Ulmer lets you sit on his front porch while he`s playin the guitar and singin`a blues as contemporay as it can get.This is the heritage from past masters with his own twist, done to hit you right in the heart!
Submitted by Ubba (Stockholm,Sweden)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  1 of 1 found this helpful.

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