Quantcast

Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers

Music
cover art

The Soul of John Black

The Good Girl Blues

(Cadabra; US: 2 Feb 2007; UK: 2 Feb 2007)

The red-gloved lady on the liner front evokes the old sexist “when she’s bad, she’s wonderful” line rather than any conventional goodness. As for the notion that John Bigham, the performer here, is delivering any kind of blues, far less the new take on blues which the blurb suggests, forget that! Somebody seems to have supposed that there’s not much to blues, with the result being very little (if anything) to this set of packaged minimalia. It’s not minimalism, the guy seems not to have supposed he needed to do much, other than a little tinkering with guitar tracks and drum programmes. “The Hole” does begin by echoing Blind Willie Johnson, but he never settled for one stanza and continual repetitions like “the hole, the hole”. When Bigham got there, he found only himself? Really? As much as that? The title track shows he’s heard Muddy Waters, but there’s something odd in a guy singing in overdub with three females in chorus with him that he (they?) need(s) a good girl. “Moanin’,” which isn’t any known tune by that name, isn’t even moanin’. It’s just wordless vocalising over acoustic guitar (there are surprisingly few different words on this for a mostly vocal CD). “Slipin (sic) and Slidin’” has spaceship gurgles, percussion and more acoustic. Does this sometime Miles Davis sideman think there’ s no more to blues than that? “One Hit” is musically pastiche gospel, with cowboy twang, about a woman whose “one hit too many” suggests there’s a right dosage of the stuff for which she’s been selling her body (which body the ungentlemanly Bigham distinguishes from fresh meat). “Deez Blues”, in a throaty high voice suggesting falsetto, might have been intended to make people laugh. I laughed. But I wasn’t happy. The last track is like the first called “The Hole”, but “(shorter version)”, which could only be an improvement. Sixty people are named in the inlay as having made this CD possible. Won’t wash, JB, don’t try to spread the blame!  Why isn’t this set called Insultin’ the Blues?

Rating:

Comments
Now on PopMatters
Mommy Fearest: 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' (Blu-ray) (Short Ends and Leader) [Wed, 12:30 pm]
2012 Nelsonville Music Festival (Notes from the Road) [Wed, 12:00 pm]
20 Questions: Hannibal Buress (Sound Affects) [Wed, 11:00 am]
Cannes 2012: 'Reality' + 'In the Fog' (Reviews) [Wed, 8:08 am]
Love, and Other Indelible Stains (Columns) [Wed, 2:00 am]
Sigur Rós: Valtari (Reviews) [Wed, 2:00 am]
Lemonade: Diver (Reviews) [Wed, 2:00 am]
Cory Branan: Mutt (Reviews) [Wed, 2:00 am]
Big Science: Difficulty (Capsule Reviews) [Wed, 2:00 am]
  1. The Top 10 Overplayed Songs You Hate by Artists You Love (Sound Affects)
  2. Tea with 'Sherlock': Investigating the Investigators (Features)
  3. Sunk? This 'Battleship' Stunk! (Short Ends and Leader)
  4. Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Reviews)
  5. 10 Pieces of Cinematic Art That Require Revisiting (Short Ends and Leader)
  6. She's a Rainbow: A Tribute to Donna Summer (Features)
  7. Punk Rock's Pet Sounds: An Interview with Bomb the Music Industry! (Features)
  8. 'Albatross': A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film (Reviews)
  9. Counterbalance No. 82: U2's 'Achtung Baby' (Sound Affects)
  10. The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader)
  11. Counterbalance No. 83: The Stooges' 'Fun House' (Sound Affects)
  12. We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience (Features)
  13. Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist (Mixed Media)
  14. The Queen and Her Crayons: An Interview With Donna Summer (Features)
  15. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Reviews)
  16. The Best Canadian Records of the Year? The Fun Agony of Voting for the Polaris Prize Long List (Sound Affects)
  17. Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective (Columns)
  18. Flash Points: Mommy's Breast, Marriage Equality and Why Chipotle Is King (Features)
  19. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (Columns)
  20. Saint Etienne: Words and Music (Reviews)
  21. In Support of Supports (Moving Pixels)
  22. Flash Points: Chicks, Sluts and Facebook (Features)
  23. In Defense Of... Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture (Columns)
  24. Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Reviews)
  25. The Cult: Choice of Weapon (Reviews)
  26. The Walkmen: Heaven (Reviews)
  27. Willie Nelson: Heroes (Reviews)
  28. 'People's Pornography': The Mundanities of Pornography and Surveillance Culture (Reviews)
  29. Feeling '80s Spirit: Post-Hardcore Punk for the Plastic Generation (Columns)
  30. Various Artists: Occupy This Album (Reviews)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements
Ratings

10 - The Best of the Best

9 - Very Nearly Perfect

8 - Excellent

7 - Damn Good

6 - Good

5 - Average

4 - Unexceptional

3 - Weak

2 - Seriously Flawed

1 - Terrible

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.