Artist:     Mike Munson

Album:     Rose Hill

Label:     Blue Front

Release Date:     11.1.2018

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BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

Blues have long been associated with the upper parts of the Mississippi River as well as the Delta.  The Minneapolis area was home to the legendary trio of Koerner, Ray & Glover, Willie Murphy, and today’s Charlie Parr. Count Mike Munson in this group as well. Munson is stepping out with his first album in five years on Blue Front Records, the Bentonia, MS-based label that takes its name from the country’s oldest juke joint, the Blue Front Café, owned and operated by Jimmy “Duck”  Holmes. Munson’s Rose Hill was recorded live in the unassuming, cinder-block venue, which operates as a studio, bar, and even sometimes a barber shop, basically whatever the need calls for.

“It’s not like crafting a studio work. There’s no overdubbing, no second chances. No editing out  Jimmy [Holmes]  moving chairs around or people talking. It’s all there,” Munson explained. “This album is the sound of that day at the Blue Front. It’s a snapshot of not only what was musically happening, but listening to it, I can be transported back to that place”

Holmes is today’s leading progenitor of the Bentonia Blues, a unique style of guitar open D-minor and E-minor tuning. It was developed by Henry Stuckey, who learned it from British soldiers from Trinidad who were stationed in France with Stuckey during World War I. Stuckey brought the style back to Bentonia and taught it to the legendary Skip James, Jack Owens, Jacob Stuckey, Bud Spires, Cornelius Bright, Tommy West and others. As the style evolved through collaboration among these players, the lyrics and music took on a haunting, dark, quality that to this day remains mesmerizing and trance-like.

As told by co-producer Michael Schulze, “We had been luring Mike to record his next album under Blue Front Records ever since Mike opened for Jimmy during a tour of Minnesota and Wisconsin in July 2015. Appropriately, that first show was in Mike’s hometown of Winona, MN along the banks of the Mississippi River just off US 61—the Blues Highway. When Mike opened his set with a Jack Owens song, Jimmy stopped what he was doing, listened intently and then leaned over to me and said, “Listen to that. He plays that like Jack. I’ve never heard anyone else who could play it like that.” At the end of the song, he turned and said, “He’s got to be our next record. Talk to him. Make it happen.” Three years later, we have only the second album on the label, following Holmes’ 2016 It Is What It is. Munson has become a regular and crowd favorite in the past few years at the annual Bentonia Blues Festival, hosted by Holmes.

The album title and instrumental track Rose Hill takes its name from the dusty dirt road that Jack Owens used to walk to his home. The concept of the album was to fuse Minnesota-style blues with tradition, as Munson mixes seven originals and Mississippi classics from Owens, Holmes, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Booker White, and Skip James. Munson wanted to pay homage to the musical roots of the area while also showcasing his own work which is haunting, stunning, and often riveting. From the swampy opening track “Rot Gut Devil” to the eerie instrumental to the brooding “Sinner” and lyrically compelling “Good As Good May Be” Munson proves to be a melodic and complex picker, haunting slide player, and  emotive singer.

He honors his inspirers with James’ “Illinois Blues,” McDowell’s “Keep Your Lams Trimmed and Burning” and appropriately Owens with “Jack Ain’t Had No Water,” where Holmes joins on harp. The spontaneity of informality of the session reaches a peak when Munson and Libby Rae Watson started singing “Big Black.” Holmes walked in, sat down and started singing “Broke & Hungry.” When asked about it, Duck responded, “I liked what they were doing so I joined in.”

You’ll like what they’re doing too. This is as authentic as blues gets. Munson reaches deep.

—Jim Hynes