Louisiana Red - No Turn On Red (2005)

Iverson Minter, aka Louisiana Red, has an interesting sort of hybrid blues sound. His roots are in the Delta, as his raw and unadorned style makes quite clear. But whereas the stereotypical Delta blues sound is spare and dry, often featuring only acoustic guitar and voice, Louisiana Red's approach is big, loud, and messy, with lots of brutally overdriven guitar and the frequent accompaniment of bass and drums. (Producer Bob Corritore pitches in on harmonica on several tracks, as well.) The opening track on his latest album, the minimalist "Red's Hobo Blues," seems to be placed at the beginning of the program in order to lull you into complacency before he whangs you upside the head with the raucous one-two punch of "Freight Train to Ride" (a new recording of an old favorite) and "I Been Down So Long." Then he changes it up again, with a simple and deeply felt tribute to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks ("September 11th Blues") before ramping things back up with the sonically raunchy "I Done Woke Up." That's pretty much how it goes for the whole album: moments of quiet reflection broadsided by some of the rawest electro-Delta blues shouting you'll ever hear. Recommended. (by Rick Anderson.)