PREACHER BOY – THE NATCH’L BLUES.

PREACHER BOY AND THE NATURAL BLUES
Blind Pig Records BPCD 5017

GUTTER AND PEWS
Blind Pig Records BPCD 5034

 Maybe it ain’t in the water but it sure is in that West Coast air. Just as the likes
of Beck stir up old country forms and brew up a new rain-dance with their
mixture of pre-war country/swamp/rock/punk here comes another brother
covered in dust – if he ain’t walked straight out of the desert he should have!
Telling stories, just like Waits, this youngun’s got a  voice like gravel- he’s 29
going on 75! It’s a voice to drag the imagination back to the levee, back to the
dust blowing across Son House’s guitar. The sound of a bottleneck being worn
down. Hell, ‘Cold Mountain Music’ shivers with the ghosts of early Gun Club
(when they were very good) and the best of the Gibson Brothers ( Columbus,
Ohio model not the disco crowd) and even Waits pre-operetta days.
Also reminds me of way, way back – Blind Willie Johnson, Charlie Patton,
pre-war, pre-electric. Last of all there’s the Captain himself and Cooder
influencing these tunes – a sort of zig-zag spell.
 Chris Watkins –a.k.a. The Preacher Boy – is part of a design collective way out
west in the sun – just search the web for ‘Mediaband’. Yup things are getting
mighty interesting in them tecno-shacks out there. There’s electricity rattlin’
the tin and buzzin’ strings spookin’ the crows. There’s been a whole lot of
feeble white blues – give Watkins his due though – best damned try I’ve heard
since Cave went orchestral, Jon Spencer went wah-wah and John Campbell
went to the other side.