CD Reviews

The Devil Ain’t Got No Music

Lurrie Bell

Aria B.G. Music

Guitarist Lurrie Bell may just surprise you with his latest offering, The Devil Ain’t Got No Music. It is really not so much a blues album as it is a return to the spirituals of his youth. But yet, it’s not really a gospel recording either. Rather it fits on a fine line that crosses one over the other and hits for a winning formula.

The one thing about this new album that will be familiar is the first-rate guitar playing that Lurrie offers with everything he touches. And for the most part, he is stretching those strings on acoustic guitars, sounding very bright and crisp. His vocals are deep, emotional, strong and very true for his delivery in his messages to the Lord.

There are a number of traditional gospel numbers included on this new disc, but there are also several contemporary approaches as well. Thomas A. Dorsey fits together here nicely alongside songs by Muddy Waters, Joe Louis Walker and Tom Waits. Matthew Skoller, who produced the album, also penned the title track on which he plays a bit of harmonica, too. Other noted guests on the album include Joe Louis Walker, Billy Branch and Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith. To make the sound come across as authentic as possible, baring its soul forth, it is overall very raw in its presentation. It’s as if these musicians just sat in their living room and let the tapes roll while they sang their words of praise. But fear not it was done in the studio, so the clarity is perfectly pitched. The closing number, Reverend Gary Davis’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” itself one of the defining cross-overs of blues and gospel, is the right note to finalize the disc. Lurrie alone on guitar and vocals turns in an amazing performance on the song that is piercing and true, absolutely stunning despite it being nearly nine minutes long.

Lurrie states that he crafted his own blend of blues and gospel when younger because it was forbidden for him to play straight-ahead blues songs down South, “I wanted to be a bluesman, so I would play blues lines off the guitar, but I would sing those gospel lyrics.” It worked for him then, and listening to The Devil Ain’t Got No Music, there is no questioning that it is still working for him now.

Total Time: 47:36

Swing Low / It’s A Blessing / Search Me Lord / Don’t Let The Devil Ride / Why Don’t You Live So God Can Use You / The Devil Ain’t Got No Music / Peace In The Valley / Way Down In The Hole / Lo And Behold / I’ll Get To Heaven On My Own / Trouble In My Way / Death Don’t Have No Mercy