Ryan Lee Crosby - I've Been Worried (Crossnote)

Ryan Lee Crosby has been schooling with some of the originals, paying his dues on the blues and American primitive guitar circuit for the last ten years and all that hard work is slowly but surely paying off, with props from all the right mags and festivals, and his latest release is going to do him no harm whatsoever.

Packing his vintage reel to reel alongside his trusty 12 string guitar and a change of socks, Crosby headed south from his Boston home to the Blue Front Cafe, the oldest surviving juke joint in Mississippi to record his forthcoming (August 20th) album, and "I've Been Worried" is the first single from what promises to be a deep dive into the blues, and quite possibly its African roots.

Crosby has always had a curious approach to his art, delving with the help of mentors into the rich world of classical Indian and African stringed instruments, and the inclusion of Grant Smith playing the calabash, an instrument played to mimic the sound of camel hooves in nomadic Tuareg music, helps draw that line between Desert and Bentonia Blues. Crosby for his part decided it's time to get the party started with some pacy, hypnotic, mid-Atlantic picking that simultaneously heads South East to the Sahara, as well as celebrating the local spirits in the deep South, who he further placates with a distinctly Southern Blues tale in more traditional style. It's a serious statement of album intent from this open minded blues man; roll on August 20th.

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Playlist Companion

Find Crosby injecting some blues into the Slow World Playlist: