Mean Movin' blues

REVIEW - CHARLIE MUSSELLWHITE
Jazz Cafe by Richard Osley

CHARLIE Musselwhite was said to be the inspiration for Elwood Blues, the tall wiry Blues Brother played by Dan Aykroyd in the cult film. If that’s true, Aykroyd’s impression was a little unfair. No Ghostbuster could ever come close to matching Musselwhite’s skilled delivery.
He demonstrated at the Jazz Café on Tuesday night that he has lost none of his touch and quality over the decades. Charlie almost sounds as crisp as he did when he first hit the record shops in the late 1960s, a period when he spent his spare time hanging out with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
Over two hours, there were times when this old venue, now seemingly just as popular with r ’n’ b hipsters as it is with old-age rootsmen, felt like a southside Chicago blues club. Highlights included a corking rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s Help Me and the blues standard The Blues Overtook Me.
Songs from new album Delta Hardware smoothly blended in with the old. The only departure was Blues From Brazil, a worthy attempt to splice a blues rhythm with the four-horn music from the Rio favelas. Charlie smiles a lot for a man who has suffered real heartache in his own life and it is infectious, this was blues to move to and nobody left Parkway without a grin.