CeDell Davis – Last Man Standing
The name of 88-year-old CeDell Davis’ newest release, Last Man Standing, is not much of an exaggeration. When placed into the context of Arkansas and Mississippi Hill Country blues, Davis truly is one of the last of the originator’s still left. While he may have run in the same circles as Robert Nighthawk and other legends, Davis has remained relatively obscure. Some of this makes sense. Davis’ talent is not in the same league as some of the legends. His awkward left-handed bottleneck guitar is an acquired taste, and his voice has never been his strongest suit. On this release, his voice has been diminished to a croak, but it still has plenty of grit, and the modern backing band lead by Jimbo Mathus is nimble and well-versed in delta blues and Chicago electric blues traditions. The result is an admirable, if uneven, effort. Most of these songs are either thinly-veiled covers or slight variations on well-known gems of the blues canon, and Davis attacks them with enough variation to, in their best moments, offer slight improvement over the originals. “Every Day Seem the Same” sounds like early B.B. King with some manic lead guitar and some loping organ. The album sometimes drifts into blues bar band territory, especially when the drums are too loud, as they are in too many of these songs. It forces Davis to sing beyond his already-limited range. Overall, however, there are some standout moments. “Ridin’ In My ’74” sounds like latter-period Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker and “Teenie Weenie Bit” channels the funky swamp-blues of Slim Harpo. If nothing else, this album might be a nice entry point for someone unfamiliar with Mississippi Hill Country blues. It’s so difficult to make a contemporary blues album that isn’t over-produced to death, and this release from CeDell Davis manages to avoid most of those trappings.
RIYL: T-Model Ford, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Muddy Waters
DNP: None
Avoid: 4, 8, 12, 16 (these are just recordings of Davis reminiscing and telling stories)
Recommended Tracks: 14, 7, 5, 6, 13
Release: Feb. 24, 2015
Label: Sunyata Records
Reviewed by Vince Meserko