“We brought the ancestors into the room,” says The Reverend Shawn Amos, likening himself to the griots of West Africa, a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who keep oral tradition alive, binding the people together with song.
The Rev is talking about The Cause of It All (May 21, Put Together Music), his new stripped-down collection of blues classics, forged in quarantine with longtime guitarist Chris “Doctor” Roberts. The timing couldn’t be better. Pared down to their essence, these songs speak to our shared sense of vulnerability and isolation, but with the joyful, contagious swagger that has long borne bluesmen – and their listeners – through trouble, into the light.
Hear the first single “I’m Ready” out now on all services. Written by Willie Dixon in 1954, Rev and the Doctor offer a rollicking “parlor music” version. Originally recorded by Muddy Waters for Chess, it’s been covered by innumerable artists, from Little Walter to Eric Burdon to Aerosmith. Dixon’s usual genius imagery abounds: “I got a axe handle pistol on a graveyard frame / That shoots tombstone bullets wearing balls and chain / I’m drinkin’ TNT smokin’ dynamite / I hope some screwball start a fight.”
The Rev and the Doctor manifested a long-held desire of the Rev’s to journey back to the inspiration that launched him in 2014: raw, unbridled, canonical blues, presented in elemental duo format, no-frills, live in a room, as both testament and evangelism.
The Cause of It All harkens back to historic pairings like Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Junior Wells & Buddy Guy. The Rev and the Doctor deliver standards and lesser-known chestnuts, all bracingly intimate, every word hanging unencumbered in the air like an incantation. Just as they have on stages throughout the world, these men leave a lot on the floor: the breath into the bullet microphone, the laughter, the fret buzz, the defiant foot stomp – everything reverberating in a spirit-filled space, offering soul sustenance as only a well-crafted song can.
“There’s a bravery I wanted to capture,” the Rev says of the songs that inspired The Cause of It All — masterworks from icons like Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter. “I wanted to bring back a spontaneity that’s been lost.” Sure enough, with no rhythm section to mask the occasional reckless moment, the bare bones tunes evoke the rickety front porches and smoky back rooms in which they were born, places of both refuge and unabashed celebration.
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For all things Rev, see www.shawnamos.com