While it might be sacrilegious to blues aficionados, many listeners find the genre a bit boring. How many times, they wonder, can a singer rely on three chords to sing about how his woman left him?
Paul Geremia rises above the blues dog pile on
Love, Murder and Mosquitos by bringing edgy vocals and lively acoustic guitar work to bear on an eclectic set list. It's doubtful, for instance, that the listener has heard anything quite like "Evil World Blues." The arrangement is highlighted by
Geremia's deft fingerpicking and
Martin Grosswendt's bluesy fiddle, and the lyric, while centered on timely problems, has an unmistakably contemporary touch: "Homelessness is a nightmare in the veil of corporate greed/It will chew you up and spew you out to fertilize the American dream."
Geremia, here as well as on "New Bully of the Town," does have a few political points to make, but luckily he never sounds like a touchy-feely singer/songwriter who got so caught up in his message that he forgot to make catchy music. Many of these songs are drawn from the repertoires of prewar blues players like
Bill Broonzy,
Charley Patton, and
Blind Lemon Jefferson. Special nods go to the vivacious "Tootie Blues" and an ode to bug bites, "Mosquito Moan."
Geremia does more than offer a fresh take on the oldest of genres on
Love, Murder and Mosquitos; he makes the blues fun. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford Jr.