SPENCER BOHREN – Blackwater Music
Blues Review, October 2011

Spencer Bohren, a Wyoming native now based in New Orleans, has traveled all over, yet still possesses a strong sense of place. He mounted an almost never-ending tour throughout the 1980s, but did so in an Airstream trailer with his wife and kids.

In keeping, the spare and simply put Blackwater Music is a family recording in the most complete sense of the word, with son Andre sitting in on drums and piano, wife Marilyn co-writing on the CD opener, and son Django designing the CD package. This homey sense of vernacular makes for a welcome embrace, in particular on a troubadour blues like “Your Home is in My Heart.”

Yet when the album moves into darker themes – as with the opening of “Old Louisa’s Movin’ On” or on “Bad Luck Bone,” with its echoing portent – Bohren’s lived-in authority carries a similar weight. Often accompanied by nothing more than his own Delta-infused guitar stylings, Bohren sings with a humid closeness, like an old friend sharing stories on the other end of the swing on a late-summer night. He recalls bad times and worse, as on the post-Katrina elegy “Has Anyone Seen Mattie?” with its lonesome accompaniment from violinist Matt Rhody. He wonders what it would take to right his many wrongs, as a lapsteel curls around each carefully sung lyric on “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle.” He considers salvation and what comes next on the National steel-driven “Borrowed Time” – referencing again, this shattering memory of a flooded New Orleans: “The water is rising, and the night is deep” – then lets loose another soaring lapsteel moan on “Blackwater Music.”

“Listen to the Wind,” which closes out Blackwater Music, laments a land and a lifestyle, lost forever by the Native Americans. Andre Bohren makes a memorable contribution, adding a thrumming drumscape that sounds like a repeated accusation. Before long, however, Bohren is skipping along with a tuba-honking quartet on “Take Me to Rampart Street,” celebrating a life-saving relationship on “Your Love,” then settling in for a comfy reminiscence on “The Old Homestead.” As happy as he is talented, Spencer Bohren remains that rarest of things, a talent who’s made a life of blues picking.

- Nick DeRiso –

That’s 3 CDs for the price of 2. Just order two of these titles and we will add the third one FREE!

We are having a spring housecleaning of CDs around here.

There are three titles that are well below the 100 mark in inventory, and we need to make room for current projects, one of which Spencer will record in Germany this month (ALL LAPSTEEL!!!). So until Easter, April 8, or as long as supplies last, you can get all three of these excellent, historical CDs for the price of two.

They are VINTAGE, SOLITAIRE, and PRESENT TENSE. Please visit the Spencer Bohren store and purchase any two of them, and we will add the third to your package at no charge.

SPENCER BOHREN/ BLACKWATER MUSIC
Threadhead Records
Released April 2011

Spencer Bohren has always had a keen sense of how to turn the everyday events of life into meaningful songs that touch listeners on many levels. His latest recording gathers eleven original songs that explore a variety of issues and musical styles. His son, Andre Bohren, plays drums on six tracks and piano on another. Some of Bohren’s friends from the New Orleans musical community help out on five cuts.

Three tracks feature Bohren in the solo format. “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle” starts out with Bohren on lapsteel guitar, picking out a delicate melody. The lyrics tell a darker story about big money overpowering love as Bohren preaches that we can still prevail against the odds. His intricate picking on “The Old Homestead” frames the tale of a wandering soul yearning for the comforts of home and family. The title track is a highlight as Bohren draws otherworldly tones from his lapsteel guitar while describing the effects of the “holy ghost boogie.”

“Bad Luck Bone” finds Bohren’s taut guitar licks weaving around the snaky rhythm his son coaxes from his drums. Andre takes you to church with his gospel-influenced piano behind his father’s stirring vocal on “Your Love.” The duo hit the mark on “Old Louisa’s Movin’ On” with Andre laying down a shuffle beat that Spencer cuts through with a thick tone and ringing notes from his guitar. Matt Rhody’s fiddle creates a mournful tone for “Has Anyone Seen Mattie,” Bohren’s moving tale of the ravages and human suffering unleashed by the failure of the levees.

Reggie Scanlan, from the Radiators, joins the Bohrens on bass for “Borrowed Time,” another look at the darker side of life with Spencer using a National steel guitar. Bohren lightens the mood by switching to traditional New Orleans jazz on “Take Me to Rampart Street” with Aurora Nealand on soprano sax, Amasa Miller on piano and Tim Stambaugh on tuba helping to make this track worthy of its own second line.

Two members of the Iguanas, Rod Hodges on electric guitar and Rene Coman on bass, bring depth to the ballad “Your Home is in My Heart.” Their contributions and Bohren’s earnest vocal make this performance another highlight rather than just another maudlin love song, Nealand returns, this time on accordion, for the closing number. “Listen to the Wind” is a somber look at our nation’s treatment of the Native Americans. The combination of Bohren’s lapsteel and the accordion creates an eerie sound that will linger in your soul.

The attractive package includes a list of the vintage guitars Bohren used for this disc along with pictures of some of the instruments. Combined with striking material, Bohren’s expressive vocals and remarkable guitar playing, this high-quality release is highly recommended to anyone who appreciates blues music that successfully celebrates the music’s traditions while addressing the issues of our modern world.

Mark Thompson
Crossroads Blues Society / Rockford, Illinois

Hey y’all! It’s Carnival Time down here in New Orleans. So how about a FREE DOWNLOAD of some party music?

Through February, you can download “Take Me to Rampart Street” from Blackwater Music free.

Order the album here.

During the month of December, buy any 2 CDs of your choice and we will add a FREE CD of Spencer’s roots-rock classic Present Tense!!!

Recorded in 1995, Present Tense features 10 Spencer Bohren originals with Reggie Scanlan and Frank Bua of the now-legendary New Orleans Radiators in the rhythm section and the inimitable Bengt Blomgren from Sweden on electric guitar.

Just add two CDs to your shopping cart, and Present Tense will automatically be added to your order free!

Visit the WVIK website

Feature Reviews: Spencer Bohren, Blackwater Music, The Blues According to Hank Williams, and Born in a Biscayne

• Blackwater Music (Threadhead Records [2011])
• The Blues According to Hank Williams [Valve Records (2011)]
• Born in a Biscayne [Valve Records (2011)]

Call it the final chapter of Spencer Bohren‘s previously uncompleted works. The New Orleans bluesman had scraps and pieces of unfinished songs that had been stacking up for the past quarter of a century since Bohren, well, was too busy being Bohren the booking agent, Bohren the educator, and Bohren the touring artist to be Bohren the songwriter. But after a few secluded days at a Gulf Coast beach resort, Bohren finally brought these songs—mostly random lines jotted down in scrapbooks—to life, resulting in perhaps his most realized piece of art yet. Playing a variety of vintage guitars—one of which is 114 years old and another is a 1922 Kalamazoo Carson Robison—Bohren transforms himself from Bohren the “All Strings Considered” wizard to Bohren the enchanting raconteur. “The Old Homestead,” a warm acoustic number, recalls a musically inclined family that drifted apart; the lazy country blues of “Has Anyone Seen Mattie?” is based on the catastrophic 1927 Mississippi River flood. Interestingly, “Bad Luck Bone” was inspired by a young girl who seemingly appeared out of nowhere and advised Bohren not to touch a perceived ominous animal bone. “It’s a bad luck bone, you better leave it alone,” Bohren recalls the girl saying.

Bohren judiciously alternates between his eight acoustic/metal-bodied/lap steel guitars for diversified sounds, tones, and arrangements. “Old Louisa’s Movin’ On” feels like a North Mississippi hill country artifact—sparse and raw but with a polished edge. The title track finds him sliding away on lapsteel for a sinister and swampy effect. Not all the arrangements are guitar-based, however; he’s sans guitar on “Your Love,” accompanied only by son André’s New Orleans crash-and-roll piano playing. “Take Me to Rampart Street” is a joyful Dixieland strut with sax, tuba and Amasa Miller’s prancing ivories. No doubt, Bohren has raised the bar this time.

Besides Blackwater Music, Bohren has been industrious as of late, releasing a collection of Hank Williams tunes as well as reissuing his first album, Born in the Biscayne.

Bohren is no stranger to the Williams cannon: On 2004′s Southern Cross, he covered “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Lovesick Blues.” Those tunes are rendered here as well, but as fresh interpretations that are totally different from their predecessors. Instead of trying to emulate the honky-tonk daddy stylistically, Bohren interprets em his way with intricately rich acoustic guitar picking and occasional lap steel and dancing mandolin. The unencumbered ambience and the mid-tempo pace allow Bohren to really stretch into the songs and express them. Of course, most selections lean towards Williams’ bluesier side, but “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” finds Bohren playing lap steel as if he were part of a country dance band. Overall, a peaceful, relaxed interpretation of one of America’s most endearing songwriters.

Recorded in 1984, Born in the Biscayne is an early sonic snapshot of Bohren, who constantly toured the countryside with wife and family in a ’55 Chevy pulling a shiny Airstream trailer. Dr. John’s brilliant piano playing bookends this John Mooney-produced affair that opens with the sizzling “Straight Eight” and closes with the classic New Orleans-styled “Snap Your Fingers.” On the comical, sax-powered “Shoppin’ For Clothes,” the good doctor plays the role of the shyster suit salesman (‘those buttons are solid gold’) while Bohren’s hustler protagonist attempts to sneak the suit out of the store. “Eloise” and Sleepy John Estes’ “Drop Down Mama” feature Bohren thrashing away on his National Steel guitar while the laid back “In-Between Friends” is Americana enough to feel like a Band chestnut. There’s a fair amount of diversity here—remarkable for a debut—but delta blues is at the core of these proceedings that, coincidentally, foretold of the fortuitous things to come.

—Dan Willging (Denver, CO)