Leave it to a Brit to have the perspective and ability to get to the heart of American blues and roots music. On one of his visits to the North Mississippi hill country picnic, self-proclaimed blues pirate Ian Siegal once again jumped at the chance to record at the famed Zebra ranch studios run by Cody and Luther Dickinson. They were joined by Alvin Youngblood Heart and Jimbo Mathus and the day long jam resulted in The Picnic Sessions, released January of 2015. The affair was captured live with one room mic and paired down to ten songs and a half dozen snippets of studio banter that allow us to listen in on the party. The energy and joy of spontaneous creativity of the gathering comes through in every note with Siegal improvising lyrics with a jaunty wit and tongue twisting precision. Siegal penned seven of the tunes, some on the very day of the recording. A loving tribute to all things southern “Beulah Land,” features mandolin, banjo and slide guitar to accompany the marching hymn. “Stone Cold Soul,” and Keen and Peachy,” are the albums deep blues stompers and Siegal explains himself during the rambling “Talking Overseas Pirate Blues,” The whole crew joins in the chorus of the loving cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Heavenly Houseboat Blues.” Two dynamic highlights of the session take the listener to divergent locales: The Tex-Mex tale of a fighting rooster “Gallo Del Cielo,” that finds the pickers trading in their blues licks for Mariachi style, and the heartfelt reading of “Hard Times Come Again No More,” with the words of Stephen Foster’s Civil War ballad still ringing with relevance and truth.
Ian Siegal – The Picnic Sessions (Nugene Records)
