Little Axe
Hard Grind
Label: Fat Possum Records / EpitaphReleased: 2002
Genre: Blues, Electric Blues
This is the fourth solo album under the name Little Axe that Bernard Alexander (or Skip McDonald as he's known now) has made. Freely mixing in some electronic elements (dub, house-style samples) with a slow electric blues style, which is part of his trademark sound by this point. It'd been six years since his last solo album, and he comes out relaxed and ready to play.
This is slow, easy going, laced heavily with harmonica, most of the rest of the backing band is kept very low key, in the background behind the guitar and vocals. It is a slow, relaxed collection of electric blues and even some gospel blues. The instruments take full stage, with several songs that either have no lyrics, or voices samples instead of lyrics. It's different from a lot of blues you can find out there.
The opening track is a verion of Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground - whose original vocals were a hummed tune to begin with. This one places a sample over the guitar instead, though dropped way down I have trouble making them out. The fastest the album gets is a few mid-tempo pieces in the middle called Midnight Dream and Long Way To Go. Both of which are songs that made it onto some compilations later on and are the heaviest in electronica elements.
This is, when listened to in full, an excellent collection to sit back and chill out to. It's relaxed and easy going in a way only the blues can be. A superb piece of work.
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