Artist: Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood
Album: Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood
Label: Self-released
Release Date: 2.2.2018
Recently we lost the undiscovered Mississippi bluesman, Leo “Bud” Welch, who created quite a stir the last couple of years. Now, again through the efforts of folks like Jimbo Mathus and engineer Bronson Tew, we have another discovery, guitarist/vocalist Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood, with his first full band album. Youngblood, in his mid-60s, is not entirely a vintage bluesman however. He mixes the traditional with contemporary, and for good measure, adds soul too.
Youngblood acquired the “Gearshifter” moniker from decades working as a truck driver, but it could just as easily apply to his ever-shifting musical styles. Interestingly, he has direct lineage to legendary bluesman Tommy Johnson, of “Big Road Blues” fame. Youngblood’s guitar playing developed through tutelage from older relatives who were Johnson’s contemporaries. Familiar riffs from Johnson’s “Big Road Blues” can be heard in Youngblood’s “Juke Joint.”
Youngblood, while true to tradition when the opportunity calls for it, deviates often. It if sounds good to him, he’s likely to play it. Case in point, these Southern soul tunes likeBobby Blue Bland’s “You’ve Got to Hurt Before You Heal,” Mel Waiters’ “Hole in the Wall,” and the party blues of “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On.”
The traditional songs are found in tunes like “Rabbit In A Log” and “Goin’ Down Slow,” but even with those, Youngblood has a unique, more contemporary interpretation. He delivers his own witty tunes such as “A Big Change” and “No Working Blues,” mixing them with the more familiar, like “Bad Avenue.”
While growing up in rural Mississippi, Youngblood would often visit his grandfather in New Orleans, whose 9th Ward home was a blues center. Arzo Youngblood’s partner there was Boogie Bill Webb, whose “Seven Sisters,” with perhaps his best guitar work on the album, he covers here. He closes with his own country tune, “Get Rich and Marry You.”
Helping Youngblood, who recorded the album at Dial Back Studio in Water Valley, MS, were musicians associated with that studio, including bassist Matt Patton (Drive By Truckers) and Jimbo Mathus (Squirrel Nut Zippers and multiple solo efforts) as well as Dial Back’s Bronson Tew who also recorded, mixed and mastered Leo “Bud” Welch’s first album, did the honors again here.
Youngblood draws from a wide palette and the fun he has playing these tunes comes across in the listen.
—Jim Hynes
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