This splendid CD is the result of that musical pilgrimage... recorded live, the old-fashioned way, in studios and live venues in the legendary Mississippi town of Clarksdale, it features some great players - the wonderful and seemingly immortal Pinetop Perkins appears on a brace of tracks, and drummer Sam Carr on three more.
Cole and Edwards clearly had the time of their lives on the trip and it's easy to share the duo's excitement, and indeed awe, at the surroundings and company in which they found themselves. It's an album with nary a duff track, making it hard to single-out individual cuts for praise. Personally, I especially liked the front-porch acoustic instrumentals 'Pickin' With Phil', 'Clarksdale Strut' and 'Train Roll' - very much the Sons' stock-in-trade, but no less enjoyable for that. But what a thrill to be able to record something like 'Cryin' Down in Clarksdale' - introduced by Cole's brief instruction over the mic to the famous piano-man: "We'll do this one Muddy Waters-style, Pinetop... Muddy Waters." In mid song, he then throws out a solo to Perkins, with a simple cry of: "...play it, Pinetop!!!"
Cole and Edwards' trip to Clarksdale left them with a fine album, but also, one would imagine, something far more precious - a store of memories, stories and experiences that'll remain with them for the rest of their lives. Lucky guys!
Tim Aves