Willie Farmer – Memphis Flyer

He may be one of the best kept secrets of the local blues scene, though he’s won some national recognition in the music press and made an appearance on Beale Street Caravan. It’s just that Willie Farmer doesn’t get to Memphis much. Of course, he had to come here to record his 2019 album, The Man From the Hill (Big Legal Mess), at Bruce Watson’s Delta-Sonic Sound, which made the Memphis Flyer‘s best-of list that year. But he’s too busy working as a mechanic in Mississippi to make regular trips here. That’s why the show at The Green Room at Crosstown Concourse this Thursday, June 15th, is a rare opportunity to see him live.

It was with good reason that The Man From the Hill was named one of 2019’s best LPs. As the Flyer noted at the time:

The first epiphany comes from the guitar tone. Farmer’s amp exudes a wonderful crud, a dirty squawk that seems to boil up out of the ground itself, like crude. After a few volleys on the strings to clear the air and put your mind in the zone, George Sluppick’s rock-solid drumming kicks in and we’re off, journeying through an album marked by the pitch-perfect, no-nonsense production we’ve come to expect from Big Legal Mess.

People talk about garage rock a lot (too much?) these days, but this is true garage blues. That’s not to suggest it’s especially frenetic. Rather, from the tone alone, you can feel in your bones the scene of Farmer’s auto repair shop in Duck Hill, Mississippi. And Farmer’s playing also conveys both the rough hewn strength and the sensitivity one develops from growing up on a farm.

It’s a style not often heard in these days of pop-crossover blues, made all the more powerful by Farmer’s soulful voice.

Opening the show will be two artists who’ve proven to be worthy acolytes of the blues. Shaun Marsh, a U.K. native, has mastered the finger-picking style of country and Delta blues from recordings of the forms’ early pioneers. It was that music that brought him to Memphis, where he continues to study these historical styles, with a repertoire ranging from Robert Johnson to Charley Patton, from Skip James to Big Bill Broonzy. He’ll have drummer Lynn Greer on Thursday, giving his set extra oomph.

In the night’s middle slot will be Ryan Lee Crosby from Medford, Massachusetts, who’s been turning heads for years with his blend of traditional music from Mississippi, Mali, and India, including what he calls “Hindustani slide guitar.”

As Mike Greenblatt writes in Goldmine magazine, “With a riveting singing style and the compositional chops to pull off such searing sagas ‘Institution Blues’ and ‘Down So Long’ plus add new lyrics to the 19th century ‘Was It The Devil,’ Ryan Lee is the real deal. Recorded in Memphis by Bruce Watson of Fat Possum — the label famous for RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough — it sounds unique, proudly independent and like a relic from another time.”

From the first few notes of the lead track, “Feel So Bad,” you know everything you need to about Willie Farmer’s 2019 release, The Man From the Hill (Big Legal Mess). The first epiphany comes from the guitar tone. Farmer’s amp exudes a wonderful crud, a dirty squawk that seems to boil up out of the ground itself, like crude. After a few volleys of on the strings to clear the air and put your mind in the zone, George Sluppick’s rock-solid drumming kicks in and we’re off, journeying through an album marked by the pitch-perfect, no nonsense production we’ve come to expect from Big Legal Mess.

Willie Farmer

And that same sensitivity comes through in Farmer’s singing. It has echoes of his heroes, whom he first heard playing on WLAC out of Nashville as a youngster. “That’s how I listened to Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf,” he has said. “That’s how I got my first album by Lightnin’ [the Fire Records LP Mojo Hand]. I got the address off the radio and they sent it.”

And yet Farmer’s voice has a vulnerability to it that marks it as his own. Yes, he has the bold, declarative howls of the bluesman, but it’s tempered with a plaintive catch that lends layers of meaning to every word he sings. His playing, too, is distinctive, with stronger echoes of the North Mississippi hill country than his influences would suggest. And his lyrics have an extra bite that undercut any blues cliches you may feel you’ve heard by now. As the funky “Fist Full of Dollars” kicks in, truly sounding like garage rock indeed, he seems to brag, “I’ve got a fist full of dollars.” But then he adds. “It just won’t do. I need real money! To see my way through…” Any musician or crafts-person working a trade will know exactly what he’s talking about.

There are some sonic surprises as well. “Fist Full of Dollars” is rounded out with matching harmonies from Liz Brasher, and the gentle, loping shuffle of “At the Meeting” is fleshed out with the harmonies of the Sensational Barnes Brothers, who take you straight to church like some lost track from the early Staple Singers.

To give away any more surprises would verge on dropping spoilers. Suffice it to say that this album is the perfect foil to the overproduced tracks of every genre that seem to flood the airwaves today. Take a break from all that, get yourself in a jalopy, and drive it on down to Willie Farmer’s garage.