Candice Ivory – New Southern Vintage
14 Tracks – 51 minutes
In 2023, Candice Ivory released her tribute album, When The Levee Breaks: The Music of Memphis Minnie to much acclaim. With this record she explores the “iconic folk form as well as the heroines and heroes who created it”. Her liner notes further provides insight into her direction, “Today blues is a global music, known by and cherished by people all over the world. But its roots are in the American South – in places like Memphis and Mississippi, where I first heard the blues, and in nearby outposts like St. Louis where I live now”. She again cites Memphis Minnie as one of her greatest inspirations, and also includes her great uncle Will Roy Sanders who fronted the Memphis band The Fieldstones in the 1970s’ and 1980’s.
For this album, Candice is joined by her tour band, The Blue Bloods for the first eight songs. The Blue Bloods include Robert Allen Parker on guitar, Adam Hill on guitar, Khari Wynn on bass and Donald R. Johnson on drums. Ben Levin also guests on piano on most tracks. She brings in several guests on individual songs including Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, the caretaker of the Bentonia, Mississippi School of Blues Guitar. While New Southern Vintage blues looks back to the past, the “New” references that it also fits into the future. Thus, she brings in new young artists like Ben as well as international artists who are from around the globe but into the Southern sounds. Khari Wynn who is part of her band is a young bass player who plays with Public Enemy. She states in her liner notes “that no matter how far we travel down the blues highway, we can always go back home to the land where the blues began”.
Jan Hartmann guests on harmonica on the opening track “Ain’t So Blind” as she identifies “Now you’re busy all the time, the devil on your mind, with the gal you’re out of line…you think I can’t see all the signs”. She then tells “All my children, you got “Blue Blood” in your veins.” “You’ve been gifted from the start of day”, all with a hill country vibe. Candice then covers “I’m In Trouble”, a song that her great uncle sang. The song gets things rocking with Ben’s honky-tonk piano, Adam’s guitar and Jan’s harmonica shining as Candice announces “I’m in trouble way over my head”.
“Foolish Pleasure” features another young performer, Chris Stephenson on Wurlitzer organ. Chris has played with Mick Kolassa and Victor Wainwright among others. Kenyan vocalist Yubu Kazungu adds her voice to Candice’s as they state, “Come on in my kitchen, raise the heat up high”. Ben turns up the heat on a rollicking piano and Candice gets things jumping as she declares, “I am “Looking for My Baby”. “You can run but you cannot hide.” Her uncle sang the song “Black Mattie” as have many other blues musicians, but I can assume that the self-penned “Strong Black Mattie” might be referenced back to her uncle as well. The song is a shift from the well-known song telling another story noting Mattie is available “if you need a good woman” but asks “Can’t a girl have some fun?”
Antonio Vergara from Ecuador is a well-known guitarist throughout South America and the Caribbean. On “Let Your Love Shine”, Antonio plays lap steel, electric guitar and Wah Wah. The song is a smooth love song with Candice pleading “when the darkness has pain and misery, you light your candle just so I can see”. She then declares “I’ve got my eyes on you baby, but I have got to “Look Away” for a while”. ” I see every step you take…but I am one step ahead”. “Catfish Blues” brings together the young and the older artists with Jimmy “Duck ” Holmes taking the lead vocals and playing guitar with Candice providing back-up with Ben again on piano and young Memphis harmonica player Damian “Yella P” Pearson joining in. The song is a cover, here attributed to Robert Petway who did first record the song in 1941 but is generally shown as a traditional song. Jimmy delivers a pure, old-school blues version of the song.
Memphis guitarist David Evans is a music historian who teaches Ethnomusicology at the University of Memphis since 1978. He has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame as a non-musician. He joins Candice for a cover of “Corrina”, a song that has had many variations in both the blues and folk genres with changes in lyrics and even in theme. This version is credited to Clyde Maxwell. She notes “that fool got drownded down in the Red Sea”. Candice again joins the young with the international on “Crown Royal Bag Blues” with Ben and Yella P joined by Japanese guitarist Takuto Asano.
Candice closes with covers of two Memphis Minnie songs, “World of Trouble” from 1953 and “Shout the Boogie” from 1947. David Evans and Ben play on both songs and fellow musicologist Andy Cohen joins on guitar with David on the latter song. The first song establishes a life of strife that left her “with no place to go”. The latter song in keeping with its title certainly gets the boogie going.
Candice concludes her liner notes with “For me, New Southern Vintage is not just music – it’s a way of life, and I gratefully acknowledge all my fans who allow me to share this music-life with them”. The album drives home the universality of the music with the various international artists she brings to the album, the young performers who are adding their music to the genre and the older blues stars still alive and pursuing their own love of the music. And of course, Candice must be recognized for her glorious vocals and the great mixtures of originals and selected covers she brings to show that time does not alter the music and blends well in a new modern showcase.
