- People Get Ready 5:43
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- Goin' Down the Bayou 4:43
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- I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry 6:17
- Blues Stay Away From Me 3:56
- Wake Me, Shake Me 1:59
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- Long Black Veil 5:38
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- East Kentucky Coaldust 5:01
- I'll Be Around 3:40
- Parchman 3:29
- Workin' On A Building 5:34
- Lost Highway 3:51
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Like the mysterious, yet provocative, folk art cigar-box altars adorning the disc's colorful inlay booklet blending icons, imagery and ideas into an endless mind trip, Bohren's creative sonic spark hardly stops there. Guided, perhaps by some inexplicable cosmos, Bohren's latest odyssey isn't necessarily a gospel affair, even though its enveloping ambience suggests just that. Several tunes, such as Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" and Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" are given methodically slow treatment on lap steel with such pious overtones, it's hard to discern that they weren't culled from a well worn hymnal. And therein lies the beauty. Idioms and culture blend so seamlessly together, it's a challenge to find where one thread ends and another begins. Some are obviously spiritual like the powerfully emoted "Workin' On a Building" and the overdubbed gospel quartet of the aptly titled "Wake Me, Shake Me." Others are more shrouded, like the "Long Black Veil" that's actually a murder ballad replete with sentencing and execution. Mayhem or not, Bohren's voice is reassuringly calming, as exemplified on the acoustic guitar-led "Lost Highway," a tune recorded under Williams' atoning pseudonym Luke the Drifter. Along the way, Bohren gives a nod to other musical benefactors, like the Delmore Brothers with "Blues Stay Away from Me" and unveils the heavy soul of a Mississippi inmate via "Parchman," an a capella weeper learned from the Library of Congress archives. Finally he interweaves his own musical personality with originals, the clawhammer banjo-plucked "East Kentucky Coaldust," the tender "I'll Be Around," and the Charlie Patton-inspired "Goin'Down the Bayou." Although live Bohren is twice as powerful, even on recorded medium he provides a soul rinsing and meditative experience. All strings considered, Bohren continues to be a charismatic and vital bluesman of modern times. -Dan Willging, OffBeat, July 2004
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