JAMES BLOOD ULMER
Bad Blood In the City: The Piety Street Sessions
Hyena
James ‘Blood’ Ulmer’s Bad
Blood In the City: The Piety Street Sessions is like
a long-lost classic blues/rock album that comes raging out
of your speakers and registers somewhere deep inside the
medulla. In sounds like a rock album in terms of its production
and the burning guitar work of Vernon Reid (also the producer).
Reid and Ulmer have been pretty inseperable since Ulmer
recorded Memphis Blood, followed by No Escape
From the Blues. On his last disc, Birthright,
Ulmer played the blues all by himself, singing and accompanying
himself on guitar. On Bad Blood In the City Ulmer,
Reid, and company went down to New Orleans to record at
Piety Street Studios in the city’s Ninth Ward, among
the most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. This is fitting
since Bad Blood in the City is largely a meditation
on not only the specific circumstances surrounding Katrina,
but also on themes such as poverty, race, politics, and
the history of black people in the United States.
Ulmer contributes several original tracks
to this song cycle: “Survivors of the Hurricane,”
“Katrina,” “Let’s Talk About Jesus,”
“There Is Power In the Blues,” and “Old
Slave Master.” These songs percolate with power and,
at times, rage, reflected as much in the music as in the
lyrics and vocals. “Let’s Talk About Jesus”
features powerful backing vocals by Irene Datcher and some
rollicking harmonica work by David Barnes, as well as the
guitar groove laid down by Ulmer. The opening “Survivors
of the Hurricane” is like some early ‘70s Rolling
Stones outtake, with Ulmer doing some of this trademark
vocal work—impassioned yet stately, he reminds me
of another completely unique vocalist, Roebuck ‘Pops’
Staples. Reid’s shred guitar work here will no doubt
infuriate some, but this is blues in a rock context. The
punch line is that Ulmer’s authoritative reading of
the blues lends it an authenticity most rock-fueled ventures
lack. “Katrina” is a roadhouse blues with few
frills instrumentally. The extras here are primarily courtesy
of Reid’s production, which provides a cinematically
wide sound even on an intimate number like this. The chugging
“There Is Power In the Blues” is another hard-edged
blues-rock jam.
Ulmer and company also include a healthy helping
of more traditional blues numbers bedecked in the finery
of roadhouse rock. Junior Kimbrough’s “Sad Days,
Lonely Nights” bristles with energy, while Ulmer’s
raw, impassioned vocal may not be recognizable to many as
his voice. John Lee Hooker’s “This Land Is Nobody’s
Land” is more introspective, and there’s less
studio technique and more intimacy on this performance.
“This is a burial ground/And I don’t know why”
he sings, and you know exactly what he’s talking about.
The Muddy Waters tune “Commit A Crime” finds
Ulmer’s seven-piece outfit kicking out the jams while
he delivers the goods vocally. “Grinnin’ In
Your Face” delivers the anger one would expect of
a project such as this, while the Willie Dixon number “Dead
Presidents” brings a much needed does of humor.
Anyone who has followed James “Blood”
Ulmer’s trip deep into the heart of American blues
on his last several releases will find this album a worthy
successor to those recordings.
