Brian Curran - Made Myself Lonesome

This latest offering from St. Louis’s Brian Curran is a delight to hear. I enjoyed this cd from beginning to end as I have always loved the old traditional delta blues songs and rags. For such a young man Brian has an astounding understanding of this music and great ability in delivering it in an authentic style.

Brian opens with a self penned tune called Tuesday Night At Venice, This is a neat instrumental showing us some great finger picking and slide work in true delta fashion. He next moves into a wonderful cover of an old Mississippi John Hurt song called Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight. His finger picking is nearly mesmerizing; he has obviously used his nearly 20 years as a guitar picker well. Next he tackles an old favorite of mine called Mind Your Own Business, written by Hank Williams. I have spent many hours listening to this and enjoyed every one of them. He follows with another original called Made Myself Lonesome, the title track. This is a tune I could relate to unfortunately, and I just love his guitar work on this slow shuffle. Next he treats us to a Sonny Boy Nelson song called Street Walkin Woman. This tune bemoans having a woman who runs around all night and spends his money but neglects him at home. This is an old favorite of mine. We next get his treatment of the old standard Statesboro Blues penned by Blind Willie McTell. He has set these great lyrics to a great piece of guitar work. He next tackles Robert Johnson’s Walkin Blues and does so in a manner that would have left Johnson proud. Next is another of Brian’s originals, an instrumental called Who Gives This Bride. This tune is an absolutely beautiful instrumental. Brian follows this with Avalon Blues by Mississippi John Hurt. He next gives us a taste of vacation misery with a true story set to music in tongue in cheek fashion called Talkin Homestead. The next song is a Mississippi John Hurt song that Brian claims is both his favorite and the first song he ever performed at a gig, called Pay Day. I just love his guitar playing on this one.

Next up is My First Love and it is another song penned by Brian. It is a neat song and very fun listen. He rocks for us just once on this cd and it is on this next song called Who Do You Love by Ellis McDaniel. He gives this song a neat Bo Dildley treatment. Brian dedicates the next song to his grandmother. It is an instrumental version of Amazing Grace which is just beautiful. He follows with another spiritual called This Train and uses an arrangement by Big Bill Broonzy. He closes the offering with a neat session in which he and Sharon Foehner were messin’ around in the studio. It came out great.

Appearing on this cd with Brian are the following artists and friends.

Sandy Weltman on bones

Mike Graham on Bass

Bennet Schaeffer on drums

Eric McSpadden on harmonica

John Wolf on euphonium

Garry Curran on washboard

Jon Erblich on harmonica

Sharon Foehner on guitar

Matt Murdick on piano

Bill Murphy on piano, Billy Engel, Dan Randant, Kari Liston on background vocals

Visit Brian at: www.briantcurran.com

Try Made Myself Lonesome here:

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