When he says he comes from way down south, Igor Prado ain’t exaggerating. The Delta he calls home
is in Sao Paulo Brazil. But his music is flavored with American Delta silt as down and dirty as any of it’s originators.
He has some help from some high profile musicians including Kim Wilson, Rod and Honey Piazza, Junior Watson, Monster Mike Welsh, and Linwood Slim, to whom the release is dedicated. The cover artwork, done by brother Yuri, pays homage to Slim. A battered signpost sits askance in a ditch beside a lonely stretch of highway with a rusting sign indicating that Sao Paulo Brazil is a long 6, 6162 miles away. Underneath on the small badge that identifies rural American highways are the letters LWDSLM, an acronym for Linwood Slim, who Prado says brought them to the US for the first time and mentored them, over a big 61, representing the blues highway that begins in New Orleans, runs through Mississippi all the way up to Canada inspiring a plethora of songs by artists including Mississippi Fed McDowell, Sunnyland Slim, and David Honeyboy Edwards.
The guests, known collectively as the Delta Groove Allstars, bring plenty of mojo to the party, but Prado and brother Yuri on drums stir up considerable dust on their own.
Igor blazes through “Ride With Me Baby,” twanging and string bending like Jimmy Vaughan on an early Fabulous T-birds track with brother Yuri thundering behind at a mad gallop.
Junior Walker’s “Shake And Fingerpop” gets a raucous makeover, with Prado twanging away, replacing the original Walker sax lead, singing like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Elmore James’ “Talk To Me Baby” features the Piazzas, Rod and Honey, Rod testing the strength of every reed in his harp between gulps of soulful vocals as Igor builds a roll of razor wire fencing around him with his guitar and Honey checks in with a barrel house of tinkly licks.
“You Got What It Takes” is the closest the bands comes to a Latin feel, the old Joe Tex standard given a bit stiffer Samba accent by Yuri’s snare.
Slim is in fine, smoky late nite speakeasy voice on Lowell Fulson’s “Baby Won’t You Jump With Me” backed by Junior Watson and Igor ‘s dueling swing time guitars.
No matter how far you live from the Delta, this one puts the feel of Mississippi mud between your toes before taking you on an uptown tour of Chicago and on down into Texas, a musical journey from a band who’s come a long way to deliver a dose of down home music.
Grant Britt