THINGS DONE CHANGED, Jerron Paxton

I accidentally fell in on the end of Jools Holland the other night, and caught this guy’s act. He specialises in early blues – Holland kept referring to it as “early music,” like it was fourteenth century plainsong. But it was really very good, good enough to send me straight to Amazon, where I found this new album released through the excellent Smithsonian Folkways label.

Paxton is a student of the acoustic blues of the early 1900s, but the music has a lot more life and crackle to it than that might suggest. It’s not the frozen music of a devotee. It’s assimilated and it breathes.

THINGS DONE CHANGED, Jerron Paxton (UK) (US+)

CONNECTED:

• Tibetan and Bhutanese Instrumental And Folk Music Volume 2
• Stealing Nectar: Cross-Pollination In The Arts And The Hard Cut
• Invisible Alien God, Half The Bones Broken: TROUBLE IS WHAT I DO, Walter Mosley
• NEVERENDING BLUES, Keijo
• Gazelle Twin, Clara Engel