Luke Winslow King is a man born a century too late. His smooth down home tenor and seamless acoustic and slide guitar accompaniment to his pre-war blues, ragtime, southern gospel and Tin Pan Alley sing-alongs are straight out of 1913, not 2013. Lucky for us, his new album The Coming Tide was impeccably recorded, engineered and co-produced by Earl Scioneaux III at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans in a modern digital format instead of a scratchy old 78 rpm record.
King is primarily accompanied by singer washboard-player Eshter Rose who duets with King throughout, and bassist Cassidy Holden. The 10 original songs feature classic ragtime piano and trumpet from Ben Polcer in a traditional New Orleans styled horn section, and clever old timey percussion from Rich Levinson. It only takes one listen to be enchanted by the infectious optimism of “Moving On (Towards Better Days),” a sweet dulcet tune that rolls off of Bourbon Street as if delivered by Sachmo himself.
The gospel tinged call and response of the title track is straight out of the Carter family songbook. The trio swims up river to the Delta and delivers the swampy “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning,” which features some greasy slide work from King. The album takes a trip into the macabre for the haunting “Ella Speed,” before ending with the bonus of an inspired cover of George Harrison’s “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You.”
originally published at Innocent Words -May 2013
Rick J Bowen
