Anyway, this tune really grabbed us. We performed it some years back, and we decided to revisit it. Bobby Keyes and I asked Marco Giovino to produce the track. Of course, Marco played drums and brought in his fellow bandmate Byron House on bass. As a vocalist, I can tell you these guys are one heckuva rhythm section. It’s like a concrete foundation.

Bob Keyes added his usual amazing tweaks and parts, bringing a very cool vibe. To top it off, we asked Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars to join us again. He knew the track and was excited to lay down some slide on it. Marco used my acoustic guitar like a battering ram in the top of the tune. Of course, I only use a little Washburn split tail guitar, but he’s got that thing barking like a junkyard dog. The track just takes off from there, and we’re very proud and grateful to Steve Earle for his song and to all these great musicians for this super cool track.

Great organist Paul Brown, who was the musical director for Ann Peebles for some years, laid down a super aggressive and expressive organ track. I had flashbacks of Arthur Brown and Jimmy Smith. Anyway, he’s a great guy and super organist. We were privileged to have him on board.

From the beginning, Marco was looking for a gut-punch approach, and I think he got us there. Hope you’ll have a listen.

Best from The Mystix,

Jo Lily
Guitar/Vocal

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Prior to this new album, I never wanted to release any of my slide guitar work, especially the Elmore tracks, as I felt they just weren’t right without the additional horns. It’s a track I played for many years live, but never had the chance to perform it with the proper horns. However, it has always been a dream of mine to record an Elmore James style tune with the original feel created by his slide, and a fantastic sax section. 

We set out and found a fantastic arranger, and sax player, Gordon Beadle, commonly known as “Sax” Gordon. Gordon immediately understood the nature of the project and is a student of all old, blues, horn players and arrangements. He was the key piece in the recording of our first track and really drives the tone of the track. After we played the tunes live, the audio engineers sent them along to Sax Gordon to add his sound(s), and when we heard them for the first time, well, there were a lot of happy grins…

Cutting these tracks live was incredibly fun and I felt we chose tracks that were on nights when we were really cookin’.  We’ve been doing this material over the years as a part of our show, but never thought to record any of it, as we had never considered ourselves a traditional “blues band.” We can play blues if we choose – we’ve got all the right pieces. We had always been a band with no genre, I am so happy to have been able to do this project, and do it live at its core and fold in the blues sound deeply.

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Production Credits

Produced by Marco Giovino

Engineered by Dave Westner and Tim Phillips

at Woolly Mammoth Studios

Assistant Engineer: Sam Margolis

Mixed by Gus Berry at Berrytown Studios

Mastered by Tom Waltz

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