Consumer Guide: November, 2024

Hip-hop from 52-year-old grandpa-to-be, demure grooves from a 31-year-old producer-frontman, dreamlike and bone-simple songs from a Belgium-based 83-year-old, and radical politics from the beyond.

Blue Muse (Music Maker Relief Foundation ‘19) Assembled by the same idealistic crew that would eventually assemble 2020’s magnificent Hanging Tree Guitars, this grab bag of entertaining singer-and-guitar blues you've never heard before features names as big as Taj Mahal and Eric Clapton (Captain Luke, “Old Black Buck”; Dom Flemons, “Polly Put the Kettle On”; Dave McGrew, “D.O.C. Man” ***

The Devil & God Meet in Church (Blues Images ‘13) Old two ways, I admit it: a long misfiled 2013 comp that starts strong and fades some second half—but as it turns out, only a little. Blind Blake’s second-up “Diddie Wa Diddie” you know, I hope several ways by now, but Harum Scarum’s “Alabama Scratch—Parts 1 & 2” and Ardell Bragg’s “Pig Meat Blues” are no less worthy of your delectation. If you can locate a copy, that is. B PLUS