Mudslide Charley – Main Street
Self-produced CD
11 songs – 47 minutes
Based out of Missoula, Mont., for the past 16 years, Mudslide Charley is a six-piece band that prides itself in delivering contemporary, original blues and soulful roots. A group that’s hits the Living Blues Top 20 album chart with three of its previous previous, they spent the last two winters composing an 11-tune tribute to their hometown. It’s a mix of blues and soul-infused roots guaranteed to keep Jack Frost at bay.
Like most long-running groups, Mudslide CDs has experienced frequent lineup changes during their run. They’re fronted by Marco Littig, the lead guitarist, who dropped out of graduate school in New York City to be a Delta bluesman and has been a musician ever since. He’s been sharing vocals with Missoula native Liza Ginnings for the past three year. She’s a Missoula native who first set foot in a recording studio at age seven and has been hooked on music ever since. Keyboard player Russ Parsons’ first love was Big Easy blues. And old-school bluesman, he’s been entertaining professionally since high school.
Both harp/horn player Phil Hamilton, who accompanied jazz great Nanci Griffith for a while, and bassist Paul Kelley spent years in Austin, Texas, and as bandmates in the Big Sky-based Lost Highway Band, which regularly toured the Pacific Northwest and Canada. And percussionist Roger Moquin attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for a couple of years before a six-year tour of duty in National Guard concert and marching bands. They’re augmented by vocalists Christine Littig and Lee Rizzo, trumpet player Jeff Stickney and trombonist Naomi Siegel.
Polished but with a rough edge, the band opens the action with the Delta-tinged “Judgement Day,” featuring Littig on six-string and Ginnings on the mic.” It opens quietly but quickly heats up as Liza advises folks that better days are ahead despite your life situation. Parsons’ mid-tune break soars. The pace changes with the jazzy “Blues for You,” a piano- and keys-driven, syncopated pleaser, and shifts again as Littig takes command with “City Boy,” which finds the title character overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of his home and desiring to move on to a quieter place where the buffalo roam.
The Chicago-flavored “Almost Through” is built atop a mid-tempo shuffle. It celebrates the forthcoming end of hard times that have left the community longing for another sunny day. The Delta feel returns with “Rolling Forward,” which flows like the mighty Mississippi as Marco and Lisa describe a stormy relationship that will survive by taking it one day at a time. The funky blues, “You Can,” provides support for folks who want to live their lives in whatever way they desire. It’s powered by Hamilton’s harp. Then the sound moves uptown for the contemporary blues, “Black Train,” a haunting number that features modulated vocals and a driving beat.
The hypnotic “Sisyphus” finds Littig mourning the loss of a loved one before the harp-driving “Blues Farm” finds the band headed to the country for what’s about to be a real hoot. “Drivin’ Home” builds in intensity to follow, using the imagery of packing up and heading out as an allusion to the ebb and flow of human life before the sweet “Stardust Motel,” a showcase for Parsons on piano and Ginnings on vocals, bring things to a close.
This is a well-conceived CD. The tunes vary in structure but flow throughout. Definitely worth a listen, different, upbeat and fun.
