Welcome to "Muddy's Picks" on Graveyard Blues! Each month, Jerry's dog Muddy... will pick an album that he highly recommends. The record could be a classic, brand new or something in-between! We'll take a 'deep-dive' into the record, and play a track from it, every week during that month!

Suggest an album for Muddy to consider? Send an email to: muddyspick@graveyardblues.com

Muddy's Pick for october (2021) is: kingfish ingram: "662" - released july, 23rd 2021

662 – titled for the Mississippi area code that covers Clarksdale – is a viscerally exciting record that outstrips Christone’s 2019 debut Kingfish on every level, correctly cementing him as a major force in contemporary blues. The notes are still there, but not as many as there used to be, and they’re now married to an increasingly impressive vocal throughout a set of songs that expand the Kingfish world to a bewitching degree.

Paradoxically, part of that actually comes from the narrowing of the Kingfish world. Christone’s mother died at the end of 2019, at the height of a 13-month touring schedule that also came crashing down with the advent of the pandemic. Forced to stay at home and reflect on his losses, the guitarist channelled it all into his art, and the result is a record that you can really feel as much as admire. Sharp and cleanly produced in Nashville, 662 covers a lot of ground in its 14 songs, with straight Delta blues rubbing up against Memphis soul and rock’n’roll, with a little jazz beginning to creep in around the edges as well.

Lyrically it moves the long way through love songs, road songs and protest songs, culminating in 'Rock & Roll', a tribute to Christone's mother.It’s a truism amongst musicians that every album you make has a song on it that points to where you’re going next, and on 662, 'Rock & Roll' might be that clue. Recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis – the home of Al Green – by Willie Mitchell’s son Boo, the starkly emotional piece allows Kingfish to really dig deep on a personal level, offering up a secular prayer of love and loss that can stand in for any number of things in this crazy 18 months that we’ve all lived through.. (credit: mark hagan - - holler.)