Blues and Bourbon: HowellDevine

Hill Country and Delta Blues with Hypnotic Grooves

A fundraiser for great drummer Pete Devine in his cancer recovery!

From Guitar World’s editor Dan Forte: “There is no blues band performing today as different as HowellDevine – nor as delightful,” wrote Lee Hildebrand, as knowledgeable a Bay Area blues expert as ever there was, and a lowdown drummer in his own right. What makes HowellDevine different isn’t some radical slant or “remix” of the genre. And I’d never hang the “future” albatross on any act. But even a cursory listen to “I Walked All The Way From East St. Louis,” which opens this collection, reveals a whole lot going on.

Yes, it’s traditional. And simple, with that telling “deceptively” qualifier. Joshua Howell lays down a lazy bottleneck riff on his 1931 National steel-bodied guitar – a Duolian resonator model favored by the likes of Son House and Bukka White. Pete Devine adds seemingly random brush strokes at first. Josh’s vocal is laconic and understated – no “shouting the blues” here. Lyrics about dark clouds, hoboing, and “my baby” aren’t even of this millennia, let alone forward-thinking. He kicks into a hypnotic groove in the manner of the song’s composer, Fred McDowell, with Pete rolling into a steady rhythm as Joe Kyle, Jr., plucks his upright bass, alternately grabbing his bow to make the bass growl. Sure, it’s the blues, but it’s also a study in dynamics, of theme and variation.

Labeling art is always fallible, which is maybe why HowellDevine calls its style simply “shack-shaking music”  – as apt a description as any. Hitting “play” for Strange Times Blues is a guarantee your apartment, shack, or mansion will be shaking in no time. Mine hasn’t stopped.”