Paris James
Death Letter
Dreamvox
Blues is a contradiction. It can be as complicated as that movie that runs non-stop through your head when your lover has done you
wrong. The one that keeps you awake at night, replaying it, looking desperately for that scene you never find, the one where it all
makes sense. It’s also as simple as the last tear that falls from your eye before sleep finally comes, releasing you from your pain
for a blessed few hours, when you will wake up and start the whole cycle again.
Yet, both scenarios are the blues. Simple and complex. It’s amazing, when you think about it, when one musician with one instrument
can expose all the complexities, and at the same time simplicities of the blues. Paris James is one of those musicians. On his debut
CD Death Letter he uses only the beautiful richness of his natural voice and the strings on his guitar to tell his tales and in the process
move you to not just to hear the blues, but to feel them too.
James understands contradictions as part of his flesh and blood – his maternal grandfather, Reverend Frank Cubby, ran the largest
black Baptist Church in Georgia. His paternal grandfather ran bootleg liquor through backwoods Florida. Paris James himself was
born inside a Florida Church, yet lives to sing the blues. Oh, the irony!
His acappella vocal on the opening of Track 3 “Folk Tales” literally gave me goose bumps. The short intro before the song begins
gives an interesting insight to the song as only the songwriter himself can. James wrote half of the tunes on the disc, and carefully
chose the rest: Son House’s “Death Letter”, Blind Lemon’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”, Robert Johnson’s “32-20 Blues” and
Willie Dixon’s “I Ain’t Superstitious”. He is respectful of the original recordings of these songs while adding his own touch and
making them his – not changing them, but embracing them.
This is a fine first effort from an extraordinary bluesman. Get it and get the blues.
- Blue Lisa -
Southwest Blues CD Review - July 2007
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