Cedell Davis – When Lightnin’ Struck The Pine
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Posted On September 1, 2002
Arkansas-born bluesman Cedell Davis has a trademark slide guitar style: he favors a butter knife, which causes uneven pressure, creating an off-kilter “alternate tuning”. But Davis is also a pronounced vocalist with a deep, woody voice that is classic in its raw blues intonation as well as its florid southern tones.
Now in his mid-70s, Davis spent most of his career as a sideman, notably with blues guitarist Robert Nighthawk, before recording under his own name in the 1990s. After a couple records for influential blues label Fat Possum, Davis has moved to the fledgling Fast Horse Records for his new disc, When Lightnin’ Struck The Pine.
Backing Davis on the disc are the label’s owners: Brave Combo drummer Joe Cripps, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and ex-Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin. Also along for the ride are Minus 5 leader Scott McCaughey and Wayward Shamans keyboardist Alex Veley, as well as longtime Davis guitarist T. Houston Jones.
Lowell Fulson’s “So Long, I Hate To See You Go” is performed slow and spacey, with room left for subtle but heated guitar vamps; “Rub Me Baby” is a similarly seductive saunter but with a lo-fi feel; and the B.B. King favorite “Woke Up This Morning” is a hunka cha-cha-infused blues, hot and heavy as a tamale, with Davis pouting and lusting like Mick Jagger dreams he could’ve at any age.
When Lightnin’ Struck The Pine is not as raw as Davis’ acclaimed 1994 disc Feel Like Doin’ Something Wrong. This one is fired up like a Friday night and goes its own way; heavier arrangements come par for the course of the big company. Still, if there is any polish here, it is of the spit variety; the record is minimally produced and is a fine set of loose limbed, jamming boogie, piqued by Davis’ almighty guitar work and that great, plangent, earthy voice.
