W.C. Spencer

Blues" to the Dobro-based country blues instrumental "My Old Home." Sometimes varied genres are blended within a single song - witness his cover of W.C. Handy's "Atlanta Blues" ("the first blues song I ever heard," said Spencer), which he embellishes by opening and closing with fragments of "Amazing Grace." "What I'm trying to do is to point toward a very happy marriage of secular and gospel music in the sound," said Spencer. "I like to mix a little bit of the religious with the profane. It has a fabulous tradition."

Spencer's originals are equally diverse. There's "Some of the Things I've Been Meaning To Do," an electric, Texas-influenced blues with clever, tongue-in-cheek lyrics from a narrator promising to make right with his girlfriend - someday. There's a shot at social commentary with "I'm Your Monkey," an examination of substance abuse ("You hear now about 11- and 12-year-olds doing heroin," Spencer said. "I just can't help but be astounded by the direction that younger generation's taking.").

And there's a jazzy instrumental called "Killer Filler" that almost didn't make it onto the album - the song was actually a jam that happened to take place when tape was rolling. Among Over Time's covers are Arthur Pettis' "Good Boy Blues," a jazzy take on the classic "Born Under a Bad Sign," and a slow, funky version of "Got My Mojo Working" that Spencer said was inspired by Jimmy Smith's '60s-era recording.

Such variety doesn't come casually. "It's awfully hard to get a different sound for each song. What you're forced to do is to concentrate on rhythms that are not related and keys that are not necessarily related to each other," said Spencer. "There's so many different kinds of music under one umbrella - that's what makes the blues unique. I wanted as broad a sphere as possible." If Spencer is as successful at juggling multiple styles of blues as he is at juggling his multitude of instruments, that shouldn't be a problem. KB

Some people are lucky to be able to play a single musical instrument. I, on a really good day, can coax a passable melody out of a piano while tapping one foot to keep what could charitably be called a rhythm. Maryland blues-man W.C. Spencer can sing, play guitar, blow harmonica, play a drum kit with one foot, and play bass pedals with the other. Maybe next album he'll throw in an accordion and a brass section.

Spencer's second Catscan Records release, Over Time, is in the final stages of production and is tentatively scheduled for a September release. Like his 1996 debut, Bluescat (also on Catscan), the 13-song disc features the homemade drum kit that allows him to be a virtual one-man blues band. Spencer created his first kit in 1974 as a way to give himself more flexibility when playing live; his current unit is an improved, more durable version that he built just a few years ago. "When I invented this thing, it was with a view toward having my independence and at least being able to cover my action if and when I couldn't find a band. Then, it just became more convenient to present the music in that format," Spencer said from his home in rural Baldwin, Md.

Spencer describes his setup: "It's an eight-piece drum kit that I play with the right foot. There are four pedals side by side, in an arc. On the front of the pedals are the acoustic instruments, two cymbals,a high hat and a snare. On the back are three switches for my heel - one's a kick drum, one's a snare sample and one's a tom sample. By working your foot back and forth, you keep the '4' [down]beat with your heel and go out to the front and to the side, and you keep the high hat going with an '8' [backbeat]. Then I had to add bass, because a kick drum's no good without the bass. So I got a set of pedals designed for a church organist playing an electric piano - just 13 bass notes." (See picture.) This many-instruments-at-once approach makes live recording the obvious choice when Spencer goes into the studio. Except for a handful of overdubs of guitar leads and keyboard parts, what listeners will hear on Over Time was recorded in a single take - a process similar to the one used to record Bluescat, but with more advanced equipment. (His first effort was recorded to analog tape; the new one was recorded digitally.) This time, Spencer focused more on writing his own material: Where Bluescat had 10 cover tunes, seven of the tracks set to appear on Over Time are originals. The album will be split evenly between acoustic and electric songs and will feature a wide spectrum of styles, from the Texas blues of Washboard Sam's "Flying Crow