W.C. Spencer

i You may not be able to teach old dogs new tricks, but what one serious blues cat does is apply a few new tricks to an old music form and make it sound, well, really old.

I know what W.C. Spencer does, and I also know the why of it, but what I don't quite know is just how he does it. After getting his feet wet in the blues fronting a power trio way back at the dawn of the 1970's, the day arrived for whatever reason when he found himself out on the scene in rural Virginia alone, making a go of it with just an acoustic guitar.

To entice his audiences, he began spicing up his shows by adding harp on a rack, then a tambourine on the floor, then a this and a that. Eventually, Spencer was playing a custom-made contraption that allowed him, literally, to be a one man band. Traveling the country for more than a decade and absorbing inspiration from all the blues vets he appeared with, Spencer suddenly did the unexpected. He quit and went to college at age 33. Then, for 11 years beginning in 1983, he worked a variety of "regular" jobs until the blues bug once again got the best of him. Bowing to fate, he took an updated version of his blues-making apparatus on the road, and then into the studio. The albums Bluescat and Over Time signaled the arrival of an artist creating original songs and adaptations of well-known blues music in a way no one before him had ever even thought about.

Blues Explorer is another fine representation of W.C. Spencer's personal take on the blues. The track that initially caught my attention is "So Long," a tribute to late guitarists Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton. Spencer's had the opportunity to sit in with both of these mid-Atlantic legends and this original instrumental melds their styles to dramatic effect, but the result is a melody of understated beauty. "Down with the Blues" is an appealing shuffle written by under-heralded St. Louis bluesman Tommy Bankhead. Spencer nails the song, and it's appearance tells me that he's a man that knows his blues history. In fact, most of the songs on the album pay tribute to a particular blues VIP. The greasy, slide-supported version of Howlin' Wolf's "I'm Leavin' You" is one such winner. Another is the big-sounding cover of Big Maceo's classic "Worried Life Blues." Spencer puts his own spin on all these songs; there are no note-for-note copies here, but at the same time, the songs to retain the essence of the originals. I don't know who Alexander Papa Lightfoot is, but he wrote "Mean Old Train," a great train song and a perfect harp and voice workout for Spencer.

Blues Explorer is an album of primarily electric blues, ardent and dynamic. Spencer refers to himself as W.C. Spencer the Bluescat, which is an apt description, because his natural talent combined with his creativity results in a revolutionary delivery of the blues. This is all him, ladies and gentlemen. It's pretty amazing. Tom Clarke May 2004lues. This is all him, ladies and gentlemen. It's pretty amazing. Tom Clarke May 2004