Little G Weevil – Live Acoustic Session
16 songs – 78 minutes
Two-time Blues Blast Music Award nominee Little G Weevil has spent much of his career creating thought-provoking and colorful cross-genre collaborations, with the blues at the heart of everything he does. His new release, Live Acoustic Session, sees him going back to his acoustic roots, with a collection of 16 songs, primarily self-written, all recorded in one day at SuperSize Recording Studio in Hungary in February 2021.
The opening track, “Keep Going”, sets out Weevil’s stall nicely, with its Hill Country one-chord drone, his foot stomps driving the hypnotic groove. It’s immediately apparent that producer Robert Zoltan Hunka and sound engineers Gabor Halasz and Dexter have captured a gloriously warm, booming, live sound, not dissimilar to Muddy’s classic 1964 Folk Singer album.
Weevil’s voice perfectly suits the acoustic arrangements, from the Delta chant of “Keep Going” to the raucous interpretation of John Lee Hooker’s “Roll And Boogie” that closes the album. He accompanies himself on guitar, and his easy mastery of the instrument is a constant delight, from the Piedmont finger picking blues of “Dad’s Story” to the Mississippi Delta blues of “Braggin” The songs are tightly crafted and sound authentically aged, with Weevil’s tunes sitting effortlessly beside R.L. Burnside’s “Poor Black Mattie” or the traditional “Early In The Morning” and “Casey Jones”, even when he addresses such modern topics as Lance Armstrong’s drug-fuelled cheating (in “Fastest Man”), the autobiographical “Going Back South” or on the Dylan-esque lyrical opaqueness of “When The King Was Told.”
Weevil has previously released some tracks on display here, such as “Real Men Don’t Dance”, in a full band setting, and it is fun to hear them stripped back to their essence. Other songs, such as “When The King Was Told”, “Place A Dollar In My Hand” and “Apple Picker” have been released as solo recordings on albums such as 2016’s Three Chords Too Many, but they bear re-hearing in the context of Live Acoustic Session.
If you can’t get out to see Weevil perform an acoustic set near you, Live Acoustic Session is the next best thing, with superb performances of smart songs, often with short spoken introductions, all captured with pristine production. A very enjoyable release.
