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STOP AND LET THE DEVIL RIDE
(FAST HORSE)
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The Knockdown Society are a down-home blues explosion, far rawer and less pretentious than Mathus’s previous band, the Squirrel Nut Zippers. In fact, hearing him lead this trio with his fat, greasy guitar lines and heavy-lidded drawl, you’d never imagine he’d been a prime instigator of his ex-group’s campy take on Roaring ’20s pop. Today he’s absolutely in touch with his Mississippi roots. The former Clarksdale boy’s "Never Seen Daddy" sounds as if it had been written by the late Junior Kimbrough, with its loping juggernaut rhythm, cry ’n’ moan lyrics, and slithery guitar lines. Mathus covers T-Model Ford’s "Blues Jumped a Rabbit" with more clarity and rambling punch than the original could boast. And "Get Back to You," with its narrated verses and female backing vocals, explores the soul-blues sound minted by Malaco Records that’s so popular with African-Americans in the Deep South. But Chicago’s on his map too, with a cover of "Love I Miss Loving" (more familiar as "All Your Love") that splits the difference between Otis Rush’s original and the Bluesbreakers’ version. And on the opening "Mean Old Line," he makes his guitar squeal with the unbridled intensity of Buddy Guy, whom he supported on Guy’s latest CD, Blues Singer. Mathus is also a raw and crafty slide-guitarist, though he gets help in that department here from North Mississippi All Stars’ Luther Dickinson. And he loves the Stones, too, as the garage-blues treatment of "Dope Sniffing Dog" attests. Versatile, rocking, and gutsy, Mathus and crew honor the sound and the style of blues tradition without sounding a bit dated.
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