"The Highway Is My Home" by Percy Strother picks up right where "A Good Woman is Hard to Find" leaves off. It features Percy's strong song writing ability on all but 4 of the 14 tracks (over 52 minutes of playing time). My personal favorite is the title track "The Highway Is My Home" which has a catchy, driving rhythm with nice guitar playing and powerful vocals.
He also does two old Magic Sam recordings, "I'm Tore Down" and "Easy Baby." Listening to "Easy Baby" was haunting in how much Strother's voice and the guitar playing sounded just like the original done almost 40 years ago. There is some nice harp work done by Pat Hayes of Lamont Cranston on Little Walter's tune "One Of These Mornings." As a matter of fact, the supporting cast of musicians on this CD is quite impressive from local artists like Bruce McCabe and Dan Schwalbe to artists like Larry Burton and Jimmy Dawkins. It was just last October when I was able to see both Percy Strother and Jimmy Dawkins play on the same weekend at different clubs in the Twin Cities. They both had nice things to say about each other.
Another favorite of mine from this CD was "This Time Belongs To You" and "Me" which is a great soulful love song. The song "Forty Days and Forty Nights" featured on this CD can also be heard on Strother's contribution to the "Ready To Go" CD released in 1994 by the R.J. Mischo and Kid Morgan Blues Band.
"The Highway Is My Home" was produced and is being distributed by a record company in Holland so has not seen much exposure in this country yet. It's a shame too, because these are two very fine blues CD's by one of our own that deserve more attention.
E-mail Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com
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