Joe Breenreviews this week's roots releases
DAN BAIRD & HOMEMADE SIN
Dan Baird & Homemade Sin
Jerkin Crocus Records
Mine's a beer, thanks. This is the kind of music that cries out for liquid accompaniment. Dan Baird & Homemade Sin's eponymous album rattles with the sort of southern barroom guitar-drenched rock that tasted good back in the 1970s - and which, in the hands of these good old boys, has lost none of its ragged glory. Baird found fame with the Georgia Satellites in the 1980s, and for this collection teamed up with another celebrated guitarist, Warner Hodges (of Jason & the Scorchers), with Hodges on the left speaker and Baird on the right (I kid you not!). Guitar solo aficionados will be in heaven as Hodges throws more screaming shapes than might seem possible for a 14-track set and Baird adds in three more for good measure. Dan handles most of the vocals, though he leaves my favourite - She Dug Me Up (Just to Kill Me Again) - to bassist Keith Christopher. www.danbaird.net
Download tracks: Runnin' Out of Time, She Dug Me Up (Just to Kill Me Again)
MAVIS STAPLES
Live: Hope at the Hideout
Anti
For a soundtrack to the stirring times we live in, the place to go is Chicago, where Ms Mavis Staples, she of the famous southern soul family, is holding court at the Hideout. Though November 4th was still some months away, the presidential election was on the mind of the 69-year-old as she led her three-piece band and three back-up singers through a passion- filled, politically nuanced set that rose in intensity as she moved through the gears, her powerful gospel voice ebbing and flowing but all the time pushing harder as the music became the message and vice versa. This is a woman who had to walk the walk when the civil rights struggle was darkly dangerous, as recalled in an epic version of Will the Circle Be Unbroken. It's not the only old chestnut given life and meaning by her trenchant readings - "When the spirit hits you, you got to move" - but it is possibly the most resonant. www.mavisstaples. com
Download tracks: Will the Circle Be Unbroken, On My Way
