Look Out Highway

Charlie Musselwhite released the acoustic Mississippi Son in 2022; it was a towering achievement in a career full of them. It took home a Blues Music Award for Best Acoustic Blues Album. In 2023, he and Dynatones released the rowdy, undernoted Curtain Call. That year Musselwhite also played the role of Alvin Reynolds in Martin Scorseses epic Killers of the Flower Moon. Musselwhites Look Out Highway marks the very first time in his long career that hes used his touring band in the studio. He, guitarist Matt Stubbs, drummer June Core, bassist Randy Burmudes, and Kid Andersen on piano and Hammond B-3 recorded the set at Andersens Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California as well as in Musselwhites new home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Andersen engineered the set and assisted co-producers Henrietta "Henri" Musselwhite -- Charlies spouse, manager, and constant companion -- and Gary Vincent. He composed the opening title track from an earworm gospel lick hed been carrying around a while. His wailing harp meets dirty, distorted electric guitars, a clattering kick drum, and snare. His signature vocal is high, lonesome, and weary but still defiant. "Sad Eyes" is a snarling midtempo ballad. Next to a pumping piano and greasy, gritty electric guitar, Musselwhite rides a choogling blues-rock groove into an electric blues hypnosis session. His harp underscores the protagonists amorous intentions with a killer, moaning solo. "Storm Warning" is pure juke-joint strut. The band sound like theyre onstage as their exuberant boss grabs the reins and drives them hard. Other highlights include the raw, infectious shuffle of "Highway 61." Many of these songs are autobiographical and are woven into an iconic blues vocabulary that melds traditions from the Delta, Memphis, Chicago, and the West Coast. On "Baby Won’t You Please Help Me," he delivers the chorus, "I was born in Mississippi/I was raised in Tennessee/Seems like every place Ive been/The blues keep trailing me…," in a revved-up shuffle with Stubbs guitar swaggering atop Andersens wooly piano. Singer/songwriter Edna Nicole Luckett performs a righteous duet with Musselwhite on the swaggering "Waitin for Times to Get Better." The spine-slipping juke-joint instrumental "Blue Lounge" walks the line between the street and the lounge with narcotic slide guitars and a harmonica wail that moans like a midnight train whistle. Musselwhite growls about being haunted on "Ghosts of Memphis" with a guest spot from Memphis hip-hop star Al Kapone rapping across a snaky guitar-and-organ chug. Closer "Open Road" sees Andersen doubling on piano and guitar in a roadhouse shuffle buoyed by a bumping bass in a nearly laconic vocal and a harp solo that swings, swoops, and dives. Look Out Highway, like Mississippi Son before it, reveals the artist as a hungry creator, pushing the blues harder into the 21st century while retaining its traditions and repurposing them in new ways. Quite literally, at 81, Musselwhite has never sounded stronger or better. Lets hope he brings this band back into the studio -- and soon. ~ Thom Jurek