Larry Garner.

I was talked into listening to Larry Garner as a contemporary example of where Blues is going. Dutifully I felt obliged to get a copy of his album ‘You Need to Live a Little’ 1996.

Initially I was impressed by the musical content, but after a while I found myself rapidly skipping tracks. The magic wore off very quickly.

But what was it that prompted me to eventually delete it from I-Tunes? I guess I was looking for a modern interpretation of Blues themes; I expected a rawness; something with grit – I just didn’t find it.

I fully accept that I would never get a sharecropper’s deep mournful lament, of the kind you can feel in the vocal style of Muddy Waters, even when Muddy was quaffing Dom Perignon and driving fine new Cadillacs. But, as an example, it was Garner’s track, ‘Four Cars Running’ that really puzzled me. The theme was bizarre; he was lamenting what I would consider a First World problem. Personally I run two cars and I think myself very fortunate, but to complain about four cars in your driveway seems a bit….spoilt! 

Maybe I’m being far too much of a purist but I was left scratching my head wondering if there is any deep Blues left in the world. There were other tracks whose narrative left me feeling a little queasy.  ‘Don’t Run Talking’ conjured up an image of John Travolta in ‘Urban Cowboy’. Maybe it’s wrong to make assumptions about cultures that are many thousands of miles away from my own, but surely music should be able to cross borders and cultural boundaries easily?

Somebody said I should check out the late Luther Allison.