“‘Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me’ is a successful and atmospheric tribute from Erin Harpe to Mississippi John Hurt. It shows her maturity as an artist, her skill as a guitarist and her sense of tradition. For lovers of acoustic blues, fingerpicking guitar and pure, unbiased music recordings, this album is highly recommended… Although it is not a grand, exuberant production, it is precisely the simplicity that contributes to the strength of the work. The music, the voice, the guitar become more direct, more honest. Harpe manages to keep Hurt’s spirit alive while adding her own voice. Harpe is an excellent guitarist. Her finger style, her nuance in accents and her rhythmic subtlety show that she masters this tradition and can translate it into her own voice.”
Full review:
Erin Harpe grew up in Maryland and learned finger style blues guitar from her father, guitarist Neil Harpe and from watching local Piedmont blues guitarists like John Cephas & Phil Wiggins, John Jackson, Eleanor Ellis, Warner Williams and others during their performances in the famous Archie's Barbershop. Later, Erin moved to Boston and released two acoustic blues albums, namely “Blues Roots” in 2002 and “Delta Blues Duets” in 2008. In Boston she performed solo in coffee houses and there she met her husband Jim. In 2010, Erin and Jim formed the band Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers. In their first year as a band, they won the Boston Blues Challenge and were in Memphis for the first time at the International Blues Challenge, as a quartet led by acoustic guitar with electric bass and harmonica and drums. There, the band was asked to play the prestigious VizzTone Showcase at the Rum Boogie on Beale St. In the excitement of trying to impress the crowd, Erin accidentally kicked over her acoustic guitar and the neck of the guitar broke off. Fortunately the host, Bob Margolin (Muddy Waters Band) was able to fix the evil. He gave Erin his Gibson Les Paul Gold Top electric guitar and the band went electric. Since then, Erin has sharpened her sound. Her favorite electric guitars are her esteemed Epiphone Wilshires connected to a Marshall Origin tube amplifier. It’s almost hard to mention all her awards, but in 2012 she won the Boston Music Award for Blues Artist of the Year. She has won the Boston Blues Challenge no less than five times since 2010 and reached the semi-finals of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, four times. In 2019, she won the Award for Blues Artist of the Year at the New England Music Awards. Erin toured all over the US and Europe, she opened for ZZ Top, Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Honeyboy Edwards and many others. Erin Harpe has already released three successful albums with the Vizztone Label Group. Her album “Meet Me In The Middle” was released on October 30, 2020, with ten songs on it. Almost five years later to the day, she released her new album “Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me”. It is a tribute album to Mississippi John Hurt. Jim Countryman helped Erin make this tribute album. There are nine songs written by Mississippi John Hurt on the album. Only 'You Are My Sunshine' was written by Jimmie Davis.
The album opens with “Candy Man” a Mississippi John Hurt classic from 1928. This almost a hundred-year-old song has not yet lost any of its shine. Erin wrote modern arrangements for the song, without touching much of the individuality and recognizability of the song. Her fine tugging on the acoustic guitar and the excellent fingering of Jim Countryman on the ukulele bass are more than enough to keep 'Candy Man' captivating for four minutes. Of course, we must not forget the beautiful, clear voice of Erin Harpe, because that is the soul of the song. Jim Countryman provides the sound of the whistling train in “Casey Jones”. In this story about a railroad worker, Erin stays pretty close to the original version. Mississippi John Hurt, as we can hear in the title track 'Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me', has thought carefully about his death. His idea of letting his body float on the ocean after his death, so that the mermaids could flirt with it doesn’t seem like such a bad thought to me. Erin knows how to interpret this song about death with great grace. In “Got The Blues (Can’t Be Satisfied)”, Erin sings that she is not satisfied. That it’s time for her to die and then you have no reason to make a dance of joy. Yet she sings the song with great conviction and the necessary dignity. It is once again enjoying Erin’s very fine tug on her acoustic six string.
Another popular cover is “Richland Woman”. This song immediately makes you happy and before you know it you are singing along to the chorus. Another beautiful and catchy song is “Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor”. Erin’s beautiful voice comes into its own here. It is certainly one of the highlights on this excellent tribute album. The fluent “Frankie” is about a man who cheated on his wife. My dirty things are no one's business, I only handle that, Erin sings in 'Nobody's Dirty Business'. Here, too, lovers of fingerpicking guitar work will be very satisfied with it. The very often covered 'Stagolee', the story of a bad man, is one of the most famous songs on the album. Here, too, Erin Harpe ensures to preserve the soul of Mississippi John Hurt. Erin and Jim close with 'You Are My Sunshine', a song by Jimmie Davis. "You Are My Sunshine" is an American standard of old time and country music and it is the state song of Louisiana.
‘Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me’ is a successful and atmospheric tribute from Erin Harpe to Mississippi John Hurt. It shows her maturity as an artist, her skill as a guitarist and her sense of tradition. For lovers of acoustic blues, fingerpicking guitar and pure, unbiased music recordings, this album is highly recommended. Erin Harpe opts for a restrained, acoustic approach. The album was recorded live in the home studio, without overdubs. This gives you a feeling almost in front of your nose, as if you were listening to Harpe and Countryman playing there on the porch. Although it is not a grand, exuberant production, it is precisely the simplicity that contributes to the strength of the work. The music, the voice, the guitar become more direct, more honest. Harpe manages to keep Hurt's spirit alive while adding her own voice. Harpe is an excellent guitarist. Her finger style, her nuance in accents and her rhythmic subtlety show that she masters this tradition and can translate it into her own voice. (7.5/10)
(Written by Walter Vanheuckelom.)