Lackawanna Blues is a gem of a movie. It takes place in the mid to late fifties at the dawn of integration. The lead character, Nanny Crosby (played with astonishing depth by S. Epertha Merkerson of Law and Order fame), oversees a huge boarding house/restaurant/blues club for a group of black folk from the south, some down on their luck, some hurting in profoundly deeper ways. She makes it all work by the strength of her character and her spiritual resolve to make a difference. She takes in a young boy and raises him as if her were her own, despite the misgivings and the scrutiny of them "people in gray", the well-meaning, but hopelessly bourgeois and judgmental white social workers. The story follows the young boy to adulthood as he grows and thrives in a black culture that encourages growth, achievement and honesty...and love. It also depicts the tragedy of desegregation that created a new form of Jim Crow. The music on this disc helps tell the story of a vibrant group of people that encounter all the pain and heartache that life can dish out, know them "unwritten" rules of the "man", yet survive for another day. The music is based in the blues, but what popular form isn't? And it is as spiritual as it is triumphant. And though the music spans generations from Etta Baker to Mos Def, it is timeless

The disc opens with the celebratoryCaldonia, a massive hit for the Louis Jordan way back when. This rocket-fueled romp literally jumps of the disc and grabs you right by the balls. And let me tell ya, Mos Def's version is Mos Cool. He caught the vibe and sent it flying right back at ya. This is a perfect intro - raucous, joyous and one helluva good time. The rest of the disc captures the depth of blues and travels from the Delta to Chicago to the Appalachians and back east to New York. Everything from 12-bars to jump and folk blues with pop ballads and a little early rock 'n' roll on the side

Track 2 That's All I Need is a mid-tempo groove thing reminiscent (to me) of that mellow Deon Jackson hit Love Makes the World Go 'Round. Jackson is a pop soul artist outta Detroit. He hung out with Scott Morgan and the Rationals in the sixties. I thought he shoulda been bigger. Anyway, this song has a good-natured laconic vocal that is bolstered by a rich Hammond B-3 in the background (sounds like one to me).

Jimmy Scott, soundin' like an overwrought Little Anthony on a bad day, gives an over-the-top reading of a pop ballad, If I ever Lost You. More Tin Pan Alley than blues and the weakest link on a strong compilation.
But it all comes back together on the next track when the undeclared father of rock 'n' roll, Big Joe Turner, gets his trademark boogie woogie piano and rumbling vocals behind Boogie Woogie Country Girl. This is the real dog and the dog gets his day, at least this time around the piss pot. Turner's Shake, Rattle, and Roll, whitened and sanitized by Bill Haley, helped usher in the era of the original rock 'n' roll of the fifties.

Robert Bradley shines on Dark Road. To begin with, the song is well conceived and written, just great material for Bradley to interpret with his unique perspective and his everyman's voice. Bradley's reading is stark and powerful and his "death" scream is a call to arms against a profound existential fear of obliteration that haunts his life. The metaphors of "the train" and "the road" evokes themes of loss and aloneness.

Etta Baker's instrumental One Dime Blues is a tasty slice of Piedmont Blues in its most authentic Southern Appalachian tradition. This is an acoustic folk-blues, perhaps the missing link between the Delta and Clinch Mountain Virginia. New sounds simultaneously emerged across the country in the twenties and it isn't such a stretch to link Maybelle Carter and Son House with Doc Watson and Etta Baker. Tommy Tucker's original version of Hi Heel Sneekers boasts that very cool, sprightly 2-beat cut shuffle arrangement. Love it. This gem has been recorded and re-recorded by hundreds of other artists. It's been jazzed-up , countrified and given a rock beat but the original is still the best.

JJ Jackson's radio-friendly sixties hit, But It's Alright, is a rockin' R&B classic with a powerful horn chart and a great vocal by JJ. What more can I say?
Elmore James classic, Something Inside Of Me is given "the treatment" by guitarist Bill Simms. James almost invented modern slide guitar - that loud and powerful electric voice that can purr, moan and squeal. Sims is excellent and Robert Bradley's marbles-in-the-mouth vocal style is the perfect accompaniment.

Mos def does it again reprising the jump blues genre with Destination Love, a lowdown, fit for dancin', sexy paean to havin' a good time. The energy is more than infectious and adds balance to the story on the disc.

T Bone Walker is often cited as the father of modern electric blues guitar. I won't argue. I thinks his playing is absolutely stunning. Though Party Girl has modest aspirations (as a piece of music), this mid-tempo shuffle drives the point home. Let's have a good time and get a little wet and nasty-wild...the perfect message in juxtaposition to the Blind Boys of Alabama's accapella rendition of the gospel tune Faith and Grace. This tune anchors the disc with a spirituality that informs every piece of music in Lackawanna Blues. It offers the hope for redemption and a release from suffering.

Robert Bradley and Macy Gray close the disc with a Bradley/Ruffino composition Down on Me. The message is hopeful and appropriates bucolic motifs such as partying in the backyard, eatin' potato salad, and makin' out with your best girl away from the noise and beat of the crowd. The theme is a return to pastoralism and those small pleasures that are timeless and healing. There is a great comfort in getting back to the land and to your best human impulses. Bradley's masterful and jubilant call to rise above the street is a fitting coda to the soundtrack of a deeply moving film.

Bo White
2/21/05