SLIDE AREA

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer

   The blistering debut blues album by The North Mississippi All-Stars had a terrific guitar solo on one track by Alvin Youngblood Hart. His latest effort, Start With The Soul, has enough energy for several power plants. (Gov. Gray Davis should contact him a.s.a.p.). There’s a soulful cover of The Cornelius Brothers’ "Treat Her Like A Lady" and a searing version of "Cryin’ Shame," originally recorded by Black Oak Arkansas. The first track, "Fightin’ Hard," has pumped up guitar riffs that sound like Rolling Stones b-sides. (Hart appropriately performed on Paint It Blue, an album of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards tunes sung by blues artists) He closes the album with an old country blues song, "Will I Ever Get Back Home?" Hart’s voice often cracks and while he’s not Howlin’ Wolf yet, he sure sounds like one here. 
   Hart has the gifts of Taj Mahal (with whom he’s already collaborated) and is still a few years this side of 40. This album proves that in the blues and rock worlds, he’s the proverbial force to be reckoned with. If you want some soul, go get some Hart. 
   Another great guitarist has a new album out (his third) and it’s called Levee Town. He has a name that sounds like a leg breaker in an Elmore Leonard thriller: Sonny Landreth. The title track proves this Louisiana native’s uncanny ability to evoke a sense of place. Landreth’s serpentine slide guitar on "Levee Town" instantly conjures up images of mint juleps and magnolias. It tells the true story set back in the early 1970s of how the government dealt with the Mississippi River’s high levels by opening up a spillway near New Orleans. Needless to say, locals were more than a bit bewildered. 
   Landreth goes back to the Bible to describe this massive undertaking: "I heard old Moses was hired to go/By the Corps of Engineers to run this show/Out of the Basin two by two/Just ask Noah, he knows what to do." It’s a completely original idea for a song and Landreth rises to the occasion with great guitar-playing, smooth singing and skillful songwriting. 
   "U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile" chronicles Landreth’s stint as the first white member of the legendary Clinton Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band. The song might even inspire the good folks at GM to not dump the Oldsmobile brand but just rename it Zydecoldsmobile. If they drive half as good as this rocking Landreth tune sounds, they’ll give the top-rated Camry a run for its money. James Carville, move over; Sonny Landreth is the new ragin’ cajun. 
   Amazon has Start With The Soul for $13.99 and Levee Town for $12.99. 
   * Ramsay Midwood, the missing link between Tom Waits and John Fogerty, will be at The Knitting Factory on Wednesday, February 28. I’ve seen him a lot and keep coming back for more. 
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is ...Swearing At Motorists.