Mike Munson - Mike Munson (2013)

> The album

 

Boy from the North Country

Winona is located on the Mississippi West bank in the South-East corner of Minnesota (also Bob Dylan's home state), about a 100 kms from Mineapolis. This rough cold region is the home residence of country blues musician Mike Munson.

It's also in the north of Minnesota that the Mississippi springs off the Ataska Lake. For Mike Munson, the way was simple to reach the Mississipi Delta and Hills Country, the land of the music styles he has made his own : all he had to do, physically and mentally, was to follow the river down.

This musical voyage took him on the path of the late Fred McDowell, Jessie Mae Hemphill and Jack Owens. This one, from Bentonia, had known Skip James and Henry Stuckey, the father of the Bentonia blues. Owens was dead, but Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, the last living master on the Bentonia style, was and is not.

At the 2017 Bentonia Blues Fest.

Very recently I was praying for "Duck" to find a disciple to whom he could transmit the endangered Bentonia blues style (1). I think my wish was granted long before I formulated it. "Duck" mentored Munson who is now possessed by the haunting spirit of Bentonia. He even recorded his 2018-released album, "Rose Hill", live at the famous Blue Front Cafe of "Duck", and released on Holmes newly launched Blue Front label.

The album we're reviewing here is Munson's first studio work, not well known because self released, but definitely rooted in blues. It includes many original blues compositions like "Spike", "Too Far Gone", "Black Bird", "Wanda's Farm", "Sad and Lonely" (where a bass drum brings a local Amerindian color) and the melancholy ballad "Over Now". He also pays his dues to the music's Mississippi roots, for example with "Empire Builder", the stomping "Good Gal Said", the swampy cover of "Pony Blues" or the heavy "What's The Matter". It's so well done, with such a sound unity, that it's almost impossible to see any difference between his self-penned songs and his covers.

Munson is a guitar virtuoso mixing skilled fast finger-picking and masterful slide guitar in a fluid combination of grinding rhythms. Blending his North-Midwestern roots with the Mississippi influences brought back from his numerous travels there, Munson masters blues composition and performance, and his personal vocal signature fits his often dark compelling lyrics.

This traditional country blues album is not 100% Bentonian, though the influence can be strongly felt, but it certainly is 100% Mississipian. With such a CD, Mike Munson has established himself as an evangelist for the roots blues.

(1) See "Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes - Gonna Get Old Someday" on Blue Dragon, and  The last of the Bentonians here.

Interview
With Mike Munson for the Imbibe Sessions: https://youtu.be/PyqpSUlQBjc

Videos

> At the Jimmy "Duck" Holmes' Blue Front Cafe in 2019: https://youtu.be/FdNTnUaCXto

> 1h40 show in Granite Falls (Minessota), 2020 : https://youtu.be/w8QnqVm9Aig

> On Prairie Public channel in 2017: https://youtu.be/zcLbHMw0wbk

> At The Great River Shakespeare Festival, Winona Sate University, in 2016:
- "Shake Em On Down": https://youtu.be/OpKHPZpgMaM
- "To Far Gone": https://youtu.be/LwtDkFimTSQ
- "Empire Builder": https://youtu.be/Ke8j1ryfR7I
- Untitled: https://youtu.be/pcl0CmZTvB0

> Playing Howlin Wolf's "Who's Been Talkin'?" at Ed's Bar, Winona, in 2011: https://youtu.be/541n--k92QY

> "Too Far Gone": https://youtu.be/hOAseYlFMiA

> "Over Now": https://youtu.be/vJOcMzIoAYU

 

_________________________