A tasty bowl of Bobby Rush blues soup
Like his fellow octogenarian, Leo “Bud†Welch, Bobby Rush’s last breath is likely to be a blue one. Unlike Welch, whose music career didn’t start in earnest until the age of 82, Rush has had a varied, lifelong run as a blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. His career has spanned 1940s delta blues, 1950s electric Chicago blues and 1970s funk and soul, resulting in a mix of influences he calls the “Bobby Rush blues soup.†This follow-up to 2016’s Grammy-winning Porcupine Meat is a fine example of his unique style, starting with a base of funk, blues and soul, flavored with guitar and harmonica, and topped with vocals that remain surprisingly vital in his 80s. Rush gives his harp a workout leading the instrumental “Bobby Rush Shuffle,†reaches back to the 1970s with the wah-wah guitar of “Slow Motion,†and settles into the acoustic “Recipe for Love.†Rush absorbs styles in the same way that a slow-cooked soup absorbs the flavors of its ingredients, and his musical soup has been simmering over a blue flame for seventy years. [©2019 Hyperbolium] 