Artist:     Steve Howell & Jason Weinheimer

Album:     History Rhymes

Label:     Out of the Past Music

Release Date:     4.26.2019

88

BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

History Rhymes* indeed, some old near-classic tracks played with a distinctive style and near-ragtime, period flourish and feeling. Steve Howell is a true US master-picker whose recent recordings have shimmered with class and quality. Always anchored in a blues undercurrent and background, here joined by veteran songwriter, Jason Weinheimer, he delivers an unexpected look back at some well-known classics and a laid-back delivery that just slips down nice and easy.

The dozen tracks include clever covers of the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Shuckin’ Sugar”, Rev Gary Davis’s “If I Had My Way” – always a thumping bit of intricate fretwork – Lead Belly’s “Titanic,” and the closer, Bukka White’s “Pine Bluff, Arkansas.” The blues-bias is clear throughout while the picking and vocals often carry hints of light jazz and funky grit in the mix.

And though the pair explore and supply touches of jazz, down South Delta, Piedmont, Louisiana swamp and funk to the mix, in most ways this album can be seen as a straight-forward, down to earth blues outing, driven by two mighty fine musicians who know their way around a musical route map and then some.. This is a truly delightful outing, an album that is likely to appeal to fans of quality, laid-back acoustic blues at its very best.

—Iain Patience

*“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” —Mark Twain