Diggin' on some new music

Just want to share some great music I've been listening to lately. The first is Kenny Wayne Shepherd's new CD, 10 Days Out (Blues From The Backwoods). It's a combination CD and DVD. Kenny literally spent 10 days in the south visiting old blues musicians both familiar and obscure, and recording them in backwoods, kitchens, porches, on stage, and even in a cemetery! The DVD is a jewel. The musicians talk about their lives and the blues and what the music means to them, and includes performances of all the songs on the CD. You'll find this in the CD section. Highly recommended.

I also stumbled on a used copy of King Ernest's Blues Got Soul. The CD is on the Fat Possum Records label which features obscure blues artists. This is King's only CD for the label, and only his second CD overall. It was released in 2000. A few days after hearing the final mix of the CD, King was killed in an auto accident. King was a Christian man who played the blues in clubs on Saturday night and sang at his church on Sunday morning. According to the liner notes, King was planning a gospel CD. He wrote most of the songs on the CD, and does a great cover of Tom Waits' The House Where Nobody Lives. This style of blues is more soulful and in the vein of Little Milton and Al Green. You won't find any screaming blues guitar here, just soulful singing and wonderfully crafted songs. Recommended.

Finally, I picked up Jonny Lang's new CD, Turn Around. Jonny was a teenage blues guitar wonderboy, and recently has turned more to soul and funk very much influenced by Stevie Wonder. Jonny is a Christian and this is his gospel CD, and you'll find it in Christian bookstores as well as secular outlets. It's not praise and worship music, just music with a spirit-filled perspective. Recommended.

I didn't know King Ernest was a Christian when I bought the CD, and I knew Lang's CD was based in his beliefs but I didn't know he was a Christian until I read about the CD. I just love it when I find God in places you don't expect to find Him.