Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Over the last decade, veteran harpist Charlie Musselwhite found his voice. It’s a gnarled, rubbery Mississippi drawl, and at 62, Musselwhite is a master at surrounding it with both upbeat rock ‘n’ roll and laid-back electric Chicago blues. “Delta Hardware Co.” starts with the former–the first thing you hear are the roaring, jagged guitars of “Church Is Out,” and second song “One of These Mornings” has an Elmore James stomp–then downshifts into the latter. Musselwhite, who learned from Robert Nighthawk and Homesick James on Maxwell Street in the ’60s, has internalized his old masters; even as “Delta” settles into competency, he turns slow-burners like the solo-filled “Black Water” and “Just a Feeling” into soul music.