“Harpe’s alluring vocals and mastery of the Piedmont Blues style of guitar playing hooked me on the very first listen of this soulful acoustic recording... recorded live in Harpe’s home studio with her husband Jim Countryman on bass guitar. They hold tight to keeping the music tied to its original time period and in doing so, constructed a fabulous homage… Erin Harpe and Jim Countryman’s tribute to blues legend [Mississippi John Hurt] is quite marvelous.”
Full review:
Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me, A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, marks the fifth album from Erin Harpe on the Vizztone Label Group. Harpe’s alluring vocals and her mastery of the Piedmont Blues style of guitar playing hooked me on the very first listen of this soulful acoustic recording. Self-produced and arranged, the album was recorded live in Harpe’s home studio with her husband Jim Countryman on bass guitar. They hold tight to keeping the music tied to its original time period and in doing so, constructed a fabulous homage.
One couldn’t ask for a better song to kick this off with than Hurt’s 1928 classic “Candy Man”. The song has been stuck in my head since hearing this beautifully executed rendition. Harpe’s guitar picking is remarkably clean. A wave of melancholy washes over me when title-track “Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me” plays. It’s a gorgeous song of despair, and Harpe sings it with an amazing grace. A smile quickly forms on my face when I hear “Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor”. The song is truly one of my favorites. When it comes to murder ballads, “Stagolee” is among the most renowned of them. The song was first published in 1911 and first recorded in 1923 by Waring's Pennsylvanians. Hurt record his original version of the song five years later in 1928. Harpe plays and sings this one with perfection atop Countryman’s warm, buttery-smooth baseline. The record closes with the only non-Hurt penned track “You Are My Sunshine’, which coincidentally was performed by Hurt for the final selection of his 1970 live album on Vanguard titled “The Best of Mississippi John Hurt”. Whether one interprets this as a love song or a heartbreak song, it has been a timeless treasure over the years, and Harpe’s performance of the song is endearing.
The songs of Mississippi John Hurt are true masterpieces. Erin Harpe and Jim Countryman’s tribute to this blues legend, with their recording Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me, is quite marvelous.
(Written by Phillip Smith.)