One Track Mind: Kent DuChaine "Marilyn" (1995)

by Pico

Among the blues musicians of today you've got your stars like Robert Cray, Jonny Lang, Shemekia Copeland and so forth, and then you've got the remaining 98% who are toiling away at this blessed craft in relative obscurity, anonymous to all but the patrons who catch their shows in bars and festivals across America and beyond. These little-known blues men and women don't have big name recognition, access to the finer supporting players and slick promotion. And for all their efforts, it might not even be paying all their bills; they play the blues for nothing more than the thrill of doing so.

One of those guys who gladly sweats for the blues is a fella by the name of Kent DuChaine. I never would have known about him were it not for fellow S~L~O~B Brother Derrick Lord turning me on to him several years back. But DuChaine leaves an impression on anyone who has caught his live act, as Derrick can attest.

This troubadour for the blues was played with or opened for such luminaries as Bukka White, Fenton Robinson, Kim Wilson, Hubert Sumlin and Johnny Shines. Armed with only a vintage 1934 National Steel guitar he calls "Leadbessie," DuChaine gigs a lot around in his Southeast U.S. home and in Europe.

Duchaine can probably expertly play any blues standard out there, especially the Robert Johnson songs that got him hooked on Delta Blues in the first place, but he's been known to craft some pretty compelling numbers of his own. One of them that I especially like is the fiesty "Marilyn." It's a standard twelve bar blues but played with a lot of gusto from DuChaine's roaring shout and his heavily percussive playing (Kent uses heavier guage strings for Leadbessie for that purpose). The sound from both his voice and the National Steel is big enough that you're not left wanting for a backing band.

The main object of pride in this song is not the movie star or even a woman at all, but his old '55 Caddy as he bellows:

She's got wide whitewall with cool tailpipes,
A sky blue finish honey, that's out of sight

Come on baby, take a little ride with me
Come on baby, take a little ride with me
I've got my limo out front and now I'm headed down to Perdido Key

How can anyone pass up an invite like that? And that's just what Kent DuChaine's brand of country blues is: inviting.

I couldn't find a sample of "Marilyn", but there's plenty of live footage available on YouTube that gives you a flavor for the man and his music. Such as this one:




Purchase: Kent DuChaine - Take A Little Ride With Me and other DuChaine CD's


"One Track Mind" is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.

James Taylor - One Man Band (2007)

by Pico

JT has been around since the Flower Power days and never really left the scene. He captured a large chunk of the young populace at that time who largely held on as his fanbase as younger generations passed on him. He's long settled into a comfortable living from releasing new material every five or so years and from summer tours. Even though a new James Taylor album doesn't get the fanfare of, say, a Bruce Springsteen release, it's a virtual lock it will go gold and more than even money it will quietly achieve platinum status.

One Man Band isn't his first American live album, that one came in 1993. But this one is a more intimate setting, lacking a full backing band. It isn't truly a "one man band" either; as Taylor confesses between songs, he ends up making a lot of concessions to that concept. There's a drum machine accompanying his carefully picked acoustic guitar on one track and prerecorded vocal chroruses on a couple of others. And on most of the songs there's a piano/organist; jazzheads know that Larry Goldings is not exactly token support, however.

[The intimate setting is also captured on video, as Taylor's concert and his friendly, low-key rapport with the audience is put on an accompanying DVD, but for this review, we'll stick with the CD part.]

It begins truly unplugged, with a simple rendition of the astounding beauty "Something In The Way She Moves" from the 1968 debut album. His trademark wit comes to fore in the lounge jazz gem "Mean Old Man." Taylor is often looking back to his childhood, pulling out personally nostalgic tunes like "Carolina On My Mind" and "Copperline." The familiar hits aren't ignored, either; "Fire And Rain," "Shower The People," and "Sweet Baby James" are all here. There's probably not a song he here he hadn't performed live hundreds of times and so it's little wonder he performs them to perfection and with confident ease.

Truth is, One Man Band is a can't-miss proposition; Taylor is still the king of the singer-songwriters, his voice remains as warm and reassuring as it's always been and the well-chosen career-spanning repertoire is better rendered with minimal accompaniment, anyway. And when he belts out the funky stomp "Steamroller Blues," he is once again that feisty, troubled twenty-three year-old doctor's son who transitioned a country out of the tumultuous sixties into the reflective seventies. Some things never change and some things we don't ever want to change. Thankfully, Taylor hasn't.

Purchase: James Taylor - One Man Band