Big T and the Family Band - Hellhound In My Shadow (2002)

Stand On The Ocean is dedicated to going to the source to capture the blues and other roots music before "the suits, focus groups and PC Police get their hands on it". This offering featuring veteran Delta gunslinger Terry 'Big T' Williams proves the point and provides a taste of the big energy in an intimate setting still found in Mississippi's jukes. A little less polished and civilized than its big city cousin, today's Delta blues retains all the unsophisticated exuberance of the days when Muddy Waters cut heads on the streets of Clarksdale.
REVIEW BY MICK RAINSFORD, BLUES & RHYTHM MAGAZINE Big T, after 20 years seasoning with the likes of Dave 'Pecan' Orchard, Little Jeno Tucker and Big Jack Johnson, has teamed up with sons Terrell and Black Jack to form the Family Band and set out on his own. "
Hellhound ..." opens with the title track, an intense and deep blues, that remains in the Big Jack mould, fired by Terrell Williams's pulsing bass lines and Black Jack Williams powerhouse drumming. "Mississippi June Bug" is a propulsive, pounding, North Mississippi hill country styled blues, with elements of "Wang Wang Doodle" and "I'm A Man", Big "T" laying down some rocking piano and Wolf inspired howls, the Wolf influence again evident on the driving "Ole Big T" with it's strident guitar. Willie Cobb's "You Don't Love Me" is given a tough and uncompromising hill country treatment; "I'm Looking For A Crossroads" melds Big Jack and Muddy on a feral "Hoochie Coochie" styled riff, with lashings of vintage Buddy Guy influence guitar; whilst Albert King's "I'll Play The Blues For You" is given a relentlessly intense workout, Big "T" lacing his guitar with dashes of Santana, whose influence again permeates the haunting riffs and pulsing bass lines of "Ghetto".

This set is rounded out with an eponymous, soulful tribute to Little Jeno, and "Waiting In Vain", a slice of southern soul performed juke joint style.