Blues fans live for the magic moments when a once-in-a-lifetime confluence puts great musicians together, such as Martin Scorsese’s “Last Waltz” and Bob Margolin’s late-night jams at the Rum Boogie on Beale Street at two in the morning during the weekend of the Blues Music Awards. Ever wonder what it would sound like if such a supergroup could sustain for three years instead of one set?
It would be a stretch to suggest that Boston’s Mystix is such a supergroup, but the five members do have résumés that include time with such heavyweights as Jerry Lee Lewis, the J. Geils Band, and Duke Robillard. Bandleader Jo Lily sounds like Omar Dykes on a three-pack-a-day Camel habit; he co-wrote, with guitarist Bobby Keyes, four of the 12 songs on the band’s third release in as many years. Lily was lead singer of one of Boston’s best-loved party bands, Duke & the Drivers, under the moniker “Sam Deluxe.” Keyes has worked with Mary J. Blige and Lewis.
From this description you might expect Down to the Shore to rip a crater in your speakers, but, probably because these musicians have performed long enough as a real band, the sound is much subtler than that. Soul patriarch Pops Staples’ “I’ve Been Scorned” snuggles up to Grand Ole Opry legend Porter Wagoner’s “Nothing Between.” The disc’s title is taken from its opening out, “We Are Almost Down to the Shore,” written by Jiie Strothers, a blind medicine show entertainer who was recorded by Alan Lomax while in prison for killing his wife with an axe. “Good Deal Lucille” finds Tom West (Susan Tedeschi and Peter Wolf) doing his best Professor Longhair keyboard strut.
The band calls its sound “music of rural America,” and inadequate title for a mix that blends genres into a sound this tasty. Boston has always had a knack for creating bands that blend old and new, folk and rock, blues and funk. Put The Mystix at the top of that list.