Swamp Dogg (real name Jerry Williams Jr) is a well-known black American singer, songwriter, producer and Williams Jr's alter ego. A few years back, I wrote about Blame It On The Dogg: The Swamp Dogg Anthology 1968-1978, which features some of his hit R&B songs (put out under his real name and alter ego), such as She's A Heartbreaker by Gene Pitney and Stop Knocking by Ruth Brown.
Long-time soul fans will know his first off-beat cult album Total Destruction To Your Mind, released in 1970 and reissued 2013. And deep soul fans know about his work with singers like Doris Duke. In fact, a song he co-wrote for Duke, To The Other Woman, appears on his new, surprising album Blackgrass: From West Virginia To 125th St. (Oh Boy Records, USA), with a lead vocal by Margo Price. The album was released earlier this year.
Swamp Dogg, now 82, is a bit of a cult R&B producer (he had his Dogg moniker before famous rapper Snoop arrived on the scene, so he's the original Doggfather). His songs are known for quirky inclusions, surprising beats and sometimes weird lyrics. And some folks will be asking why he's releasing a bluegrass album, a subgenre of country music that features exciting instrumentation and lots of banjo. His version is called "blackgrass" and the album has an amazing cast of top country musicians that includes Jerry Douglas on dobro, Chris Suggs on bass and Noam Pikelny on banjo.
The new album is funny, too. It kicks off with the humorous track Mess Under That Dress and straight away you know it has that unmistakable bluegrass vibe. Some songs are straight-up bluegrass like Have A Good Time, but others like Count The Days seem at first like an R&B song but with that groove, Swamp Dogg adds some serious bluegrass riffs, so it is this country/bluegrass, blended with R&B that creates the blackgrass sound.
Guest vocalists appear on several tracks along with Margo Price, like Jenny Lewis (on Count The Days) and Vernon Reid (killer guitar solo on one of my favourite songs, Rise Up). The album ends with a chilling song (and I mean the chilling sensation that scares you, not the one when you relax) called Murder Ballad. Swamp Dogg, whose voice has a similar tone to the late great soul man Solomon Burke (but without the power), narrates a murderer's tale in a very disturbing way and ends in devastating fashion, which I won't reveal.
This is a terrific album. Highly recommended.
Alice Randall is the first African-American to pen a No.1 country hit. She wrote the single XXXs And OOOs (An American Girl) for Trisha Yearwood in 1994. She has had more than 20 Top 10 and Top 40 country hits in a career that spans four decades.
Randall is also a writer of six novels and non-fiction and works as a university professor. Her non-fiction books include titles on traditional soul food, and in 2006 she released My Country Roots (on her musical origins) and most recently, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present And Future (Atria/Black Publishing), published this year.
The book also has a companion album, My Black Country: The Songs Of Alice Randall (Oh Boy Records, USA). The project features 11 re-recorded covers of the most well-known songs by top African-American 'Americana' stars like Rhiannon Giddens, Alison Russell, Layla McCalla and Valerie June.
The liner notes to the album explain what it is trying to do. As Randall says: "The album centres black female creativity, but it welcomes co-creators and allies from a myriad of identities." The notes continue with her thoughts on black country music: "Country is an Afro-Celtic artform. My definition of Country is Celtic and British Ballads + African Influences + Evangelical Christianity = Country… We recognise, trauma is real, yet we centre joy."
With that in mind, what of the tracks on this spellbinding album? Well, it is full of amazing songs, from Layla McCalla's Small Towns (Are Smaller For Girls) to the sad lament, Solitary Hero by Sunny War. Rhiannon Giddens' The Ballad Of Sally Anne, with Giddens wonderful, soaring voice and the jazz brass accompaniment at the end, is wonderful but there are two other songs I keep playing -- the sassy gospel piano feel of Get The Hell Out Of Dodge by Saaneah Jamison and my absolute favourite, a great deep-soul country groove I'll Cry For Yours (Will You Cry For Mine) by Miko Marks that features lilting brass, swirling fiddles and keyboards -- my fave rave of the month.
A seminal album that should be part of any discerning listener's music collection. More information on Oh Boy Records at ohboy.com.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com
