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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mellow blues, 27 Aug 2006
Spencer Bohren, the Wyoming born singer-guitarist, has been performing and recording his quality music around the world for many years, but a major record deal has still to come his way. Maybe this release will give his career the necessary boost.
It's a most relaxing album, ideal for those times when a break from the more hectic, up-tempo sounds is required. Bohren is a laid-back guy who sings and accompanies himself on guitar through a batch of low-key numbers, with the sensitive harmonica accompaniment of his buddy Jab Wilson. Together they manage to set up a mood of hard times and hot lazy summer days down south, based partly on well-known traditional blues and gospel numbers, and partly on original songs by Bohren which fit nicely into the same easy groove as the others so as to be acceptable as their equals. And it really does work, with Bohren's 'Travelin'', 'Yazoo Bottom Messaround', 'Goin' Up The River', and 'Cry Of The Blues' evoking similar atmosphere to the more familiar 'Wade In The Water', 'How Long Blues', and 'The Water Is Wide', that it would be easy to consider them as long-lost songs just recently discovered.
Bohren's slide guitar work is most accomplished, and heard to great effect on the chilling 'Night Is Fallin''. The musicianship is first class throughout, with guitar, harmonica and voice meshing well to produce an all-pervasive downbeat feeling. Of particular note is a stunning version of 'The Wild Ox Moan', a song originally collected by Alan Lomax from Vera Hall in Alabama in the 1950s. Another interesting choice is a version of 'Wind In The Mountains', written by the white country musician Carson Robison, whose 'Life Gets Teejus, Don't It?' might also have summed up the general laid-back atmosphere provided by this strangely attractive album.
It's difficult to exactly delineate Bohren's style on paper. I could say that if you like the music of Kelly Joe Phelps and Rainer Ptacek you'd almost certainly enjoy this CD too, but that still does not adequately describe the particular qualities of the album. Certainly, for those unaware of the man, it provides a fine introduction to the talents of Spencer Bohran, a musician from whom I'll look forward to hearing more good things in the future.
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