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Jimmy Wolf
Mohawk Nation, New York
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Enjoy Music from Jimmy's
"I've Been Driftin? From Door To Door"
Cd
Enjoy Music from Jimmy's
"Deep Downtown" Cd
Enjoy our Interview with our guest
Jimmy Wolf!
"Indigenous in the News"
Interview with Jimmy Wolf from Rome, New York
Podcast
Enjoy Music from Jimmy's
"Self Destruction Live" Cd
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Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review
Jimmy Wolf - "I've Been Driftin? From Door To Door"
By:
Last year I wrote a review on Jimmy Wolf?s CD Deep Downtown and I was immediately aware that there was a new rock star jazz monster guitar master to contend with in our community whose resume is as long as your arm. He is unique in his approach to his craft and his playing suits my bike riding style to a Tee.
?Nominated 3 times for best blues recording at the 1999, 2000 and 2008 native american music awards. Nominated for Best Blues recording at the 2008 Syracuse Area Music Awards. Awarded First Nations Composer & American Composers Forum Grant for outstanding performance and lasting contribution July 1st, 2008. He was awarded for the best blues release at the 10th annual native American music awards oct. 4th, 2008.?
?Jimmy?s band features T.C. Carter on Bass, A. Card on Drums, and Sam Kininger on Sax. Jimmy?s got James Cloyd on Bass and Lafrae Sci on Drums on Track 9."
The title song of the CD Driftin' From Door To Door was originally composed by John Lee Hooker has a real nice groove with a solid rhythm section foundation. The song addresses a life style change from the way things used to be and now that he?s found a stable relationship, ?There ain?t no driftin? from door to door? even though he used to.
Hell Hound On My Trail is a cover of a song originally penned by the inimitable and mysterious Robert Johnson considered by some to be the "Grandfather of Rock 'n' Roll". This version of this song is dirty and low, slow but blistering. Ominous. Sounds like a hellhound. The delay on the vocal adds to that image.
The third track Walt?s Circle is good funky blues. The song is about taking a look at a bar scene, ?Down at Walt?s Circle? sings Jimmy. Got some nasty tenor sax playin? in there thanks to Mr. Kininger. This is a strong cut. ?They keep dancin? down at Walt?s Circle Bar.? Horn chords? backing the solo is an idea whose time has come for Jimmy. I applaud him for venturing into this territory.
Wild Irish Rose is a song in honor of a wino?s beverage of choice. A woman that drinks this stuff is double trouble. Not necessarily more trouble than she?s worth. There is always a tinge of the old raw Jimi Hendrix in Mr. Wolf?s playing. It?s one of the reasons I enjoy his playing so much. It takes me back to another time when rock power trios were in abundance.
My Mind Is Ramblin is a Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett) original, again with the funk blues thing. This is the thing that Jimmy and the fellas do so well with solid guitar work and a great rhythm section. They are most assuredly on time.
Tail Dragger is a cover of a song originally written by Howlin' Wolf and covered by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn and others. With some sweet slide work on the intro it moves into a funky guitar groove under a smooth and cool vocal. Jimmy is an all around blues man as he plays a blistering harmonica that compliments his baritone guitar licks nicely. It is brilliant genius that allows a musician like Jimmy to pursue these traditions with courage and commitment.
I appreciate the fact that there?s only one ?native? oriented song, Indian Hawk, on this CD and I appreciate the fact that he ends his CD with it even more. Blues is still the blues no matter who invented it. There?s a native quality to this song but it also crosses over into what is traditionally recognized as blues. The hard edged chord progression implies to me a connection to a traditional native philosophy. The song is performed with spare instrumentation, Jimmy and his baritone guitar and a tambourine, Jimmy on vocal. Something spare like this is to be recognized for what it is. It don?t take much to make a joyful noise, does it Jimmy?
No accomplished blues musician cuts a CD without paying some respect to those that paid the dues and gone before. It is vital to the nature of the blues that the genius of those predecessors is recognized in song, in memory, in action of the finger on the fret board.
I?m ridin? hard again. Riding, not the Mississippi Delta but dancin? the Head water blues on my way to the river road so I can let some chickens eat my dust. Evidently Georgia Wettlin-Larson and the First Nations Composers Initiative is getting it right. Supporting this kind of effort in the Native Music Community is the right thing to do. I?m riding like poetry and rivers but it?s more than language and words, it?s in the blood my brother, it?s in the blood. |
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review
Jimmy Wolf - Deep Downtown
By Jamison Mahto
There are only a few ethno-musicologists that will recognize the role that the Native American culture plays in the origin of the blues genre. All traditional Native American music is built upon a pentatonic scale that is the base that supports all other tones involved in the creation of a music that responds well to the human condition. Any bluesman that has really studied and engaged in his craft would tell you that.
Jimmy Wolf is a Turtle clan Mohawk from upstate New York, twice nominated for best blues releases at the 1999 and 2000 Native American music awards. His resume reads like an almanac that contains the names of most of the remaining great blues masters.
First of all Jimmy plays a baritone guitar. The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. Baritone guitars have larger bodies than standard guitars, especially in the case of acoustic instruments, and the longer scale lengths allow the strings to be tuned lower while remaining close to or at normal tension.
I?m not certain that most would recognize the close association between our culture and the culture of the African American in the way that Jimmy Wolf does in his music. I was amazed and astounded when I heard the Pow Wow drum thumping behind a blistering blues solo. This is phenomenal. This is genius. It?s natural as I see it. It only just makes sense. This is what I live for.
Jimmy?s influences are wide and varied from several different genre and he has sidemen with him that are up to the challenge of hanging with Jimmy. Deep Downtown features the solid work of James Cloyd on bass and Lafrae Sci playing those native style pow wow grooves on the drums.
In the title track Deep Downtown we?ve got a hard rock, dance tune ?deep down town give it up for the band.? Given the tone of the guitar and the rhythm of the drums there might be a little punk influence here.
The song East Mclemore refers to the address of Stax records in Memphis and is a reference to the album released by Booker T. and the MG?s that featured instrumental covers of Beatles songs and is a philosophical comment on the difference between the British invasion and the excellence of American R & B. It?s raw and edgy. The cover of the album had a picture of Booker T. and the MG?s walking across the street in the same fashion as the Beatles did on their album ?Abbey Road?. A parody and social commentary of the highest order.
The song Earthshaker is a song of broken hearts and the grieving that can be involved in romance. This is one of the songs that I mentioned earlier with native drumming behind a blues guitar that is on fire. I love blues-rock guitar anyway but when I heard this I really started to get interested.
Just as I thought that I?d heard something interesting the song Groover starts out with a riff that is reminiscent of Iron Man by Black Sabbath but quickly shifts to a funk, r n b groove that elevates the listener into two very separate genre. You notice the versatility right away.
The song Full Stack Attack played with the delay on refers to a full Marshall Amplifier stack and he again references Jimi Hendrix with some solo work that sounds interestingly similar to the Hendrix work Third Stone From The Sun.
Seventh son blues, a song built around a traditional blues idiom with Jimmy?s own twist. The traditional seventh son song done Indian style. Jimmy say, ?seven arrows fly, upon the seventh wind, see the sun arisin?, let the day begin.?
Killing Our Own starts with an old school Chicago blues intro hook. This song has intelligence to it. It speaks of how our various communities are involved in gang warfare that holds our communities hostage because we are involved in a turf war that ends so many young lives too soon. Our own means that we are fighting amongst each other when we still have a common enemy. ?We?re killing our own day by day.?
The final track, Eddie Jones has a groove so funky its nasty and lyrically it refers to the man that invented the style. Eddie ?Guitar Slim? Jones. This is the way you end a CD. You blow tribute to your predecessors, you acknowledge their influence and you pay homage to the greats that went before, that paved the way. He fades jamming. Yeah.
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