Slow Burn

Description

Slow Burn is the sophomore and final studio album by the American acoustic blues duo of Glenn Kaiser (of Resurrection Band fame) and Darrell Mansfield, independently released on Grrr Records in 1993. The duo’s debut album, entitled Trimmed & Burnin’, was released in 1990.

Featuring a cover of “Threw It Away”, a song written by Mark Heard and originally released on his 1984 album Ashes and Light.

It’s hard to think of two more kindred souls in Christian music than Glenn Kaiser and Darrell Mansfield. Kaiser has a legitimate blues pedigree, having been raised in the humblest of circumstances, and seeing his home fall apart while barely in his teens. Kaiser’s love for this African-American based art form has been evident since the earliest days of REZ. Mansfield’s sweet, country-styled harmonica playing, which highlighted many early “Jesus Music” albums, has seasoned and grown rawer with age, as the experiences of a hard-traveled life have begun to inform his playing.

Even though they were old friends, the pair’s first project, Trimmed & Burnin’, seemed tentative, almost sterile, in comparison to this new release. The first time around they concentrated on standards with which both were familiar, rather than adding very many originals to their repertoire. On ‘Slow Burn’, the scales tip the opposite way, as Kaiser is responsible for penning 12 of the album’s 17 tracks. The recording atmosphere immediately feels more relaxed, as if the duo brought the back porch into the recording studio. Kaiser writes convincingly in the blues genre, without slavishly imitating any particular artist; tunes such as «On My Dying Bed», «Slidin’», «God Don’t Lie» and «Psalm 99» sound as if they could have been penned decades ago. (Indeed, Kaiser makes a convincing case for the psalmists being the original bluesman!) As Kaiser and Mansfield dig into their guts to unleash their ragged vocals, as Darrell colors the tracks with a scorching harp solo and Glenn reels off stuttering acoustic guitar licks, you can almost smell the bar-b-q sauce wafting from Edith’s (pictured on the cover). Guest dobro picking by Rob Glickman is as added treat; his slinky slide work is featured to great effect on several songs, including a solo instrumental turn on the humorously re-titled «Blind Willie Glickman».

But ‘Slow Burn’ isn’t simply mired in the past. On «Cover Me», the duo evokes the sound of modern blues-influenced rockers like the Black Crowes; they also pay tribute to fallen friend Mark Heard on the closing «Threw It Away», appropriately one of Heard’s bluesiest compositions. Although ‘Slow Burn’ will mainly appeal to readers weaned on blues-oriented artists such as the Allman Brothers and Led Zeppelin, anyone who’s interested in discovering how blues and country begat what we now know as rock ‘n’ roll should enjoy the album. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, April 1993]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/trimmed-and-burnin-slow-burn/1751955459)

CD tracklist:

01. Seen And Unseen
02. Cover Me
03. You’re Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond
04. Threw It Away
05. Witness Cloud
06. God Don’t Lie
07. Jesus on the Mainline
08. Slow Burn
09. Blind Willie Glickman (Instrumental)
10. On My Dyin’ Bed
11. Great White Throne
12. Wonderful God
13. This Little Light
14. PS 99
15. Been Down That Road
16. Slidin’
17. Blessed Be
18. Long Way from My Home

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette CD by Grrr Records. Available at Bandcamp: https://glennkaiser.bandcamp.com/album/trimmed-and-burnin-slow-burn

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