Consumer Guide Album

Swamp Dogg: Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street [Oh Boy, 2024]
The dauntless r&b pro christened Jerry Williams Jr. a few months after I was born has released more albums than I or perhaps even he can count. Of the dozen I've reviewed only his 1995 best-of and 1969's legendary Total Destruction to Your Mind sounded like down-and-out keepers to me. But on John Prine's label, with Margo Price, Jenny Lewis, and closet bluegrass adept/adaptor Vernon Reid contributing cameos, he revs up the songwriting. The Price feature "To The Other Woman" is a special standout, with "Your Best Friend" a made-to-order B side. As a fellow 82-year-old I can only envy his vocal vitality. And the racial charge of the "Murder Ballad" closer is more than a little eerie. A-