(Telarc)

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Corey Harris is not your ordinary musician. How many 40 year old artists receive an honorary doctor of music degree from a college and a "genius award" from the MacArthur Foundation? But Harris got both in 2007. Nor is Corey Harris your typical blues musician. Harris is a musicologist, seeking to learn and teach the roots of African-American music and channel its raw emotion to modern audiences. His musical journey has taken him from the American south to Africa and everyplace in between.

blu.black is the eighth album of Harris's remarkable career and ranks right up there with his early Alligator releases, Between Midnight and Day and Greens from the Garden, as his best. Like 2008's Zion Crossroads, we find Harris heavily influenced here by Jamaican music; this is as much a reggae album as a blues release. But with its 13 original songs and one Burning Spear cover, it is a tightly arranged set with no song going over four and a half minutes. Harris is a musical genius at creating a sound based on minimal instrumentation-guitar, bass, drums and keyboards-and yet making it sound richly layered and organic. Also added into the mix are the wonderful sax work of Gordon Jones and beautiful background vocals by Davina and Davita Jackson.

The album starts with the song "Black" and ends with "Blues." In between he gives us a history of the African-American - and indeed, human - experience. His voice can either soar soulfully or rap. Thematically, he covers everything from the Italians fascists dropping mustard gas on Ethiopians in "Conquering Lion" to the life affirming love of "King and Queen." On "Find a Way" Harris sings, "We living in dark days/We got to shine the light/So we can find out way back home."

People dealing with evil is a common theme here, whether it is facing oppression in the pure reggae, "Babylon Walls," or the racist lies of Columbus on the Burning Spear song, "Columbus." Harris performs the latter alone on acoustic guitar. But the most ominous song on the set is "Pimp and Thieves" which might be one of the most powerful indictments of the music and entertainment business recorded recently. "They tell you they gonna make you a star/ Make you forget you know who you are...And when the money done/ Kick you to the curb/ Get another one."

The album ends with an authentic blues song. "Blues" is a 12 bar shuffle right out of the Muddy Waters tradition. But the lyrics go back even further to the Mississippi Delta and Africa before that. He sings, "I hate to see the evening sun go down/ I hate to see the evening sun go down/ Because it makes me feel like I am on my last go round."

That is the blues: people facing all kinds of trouble using music to show that they are still standing and never giving up despite the odds. Corey Harris has set the bar so high that he is capable of producing a masterpiece with each new album. blu.black is a great album from one of America's greatest musical talents. Corey Harris is a true artist.

Standout Tracks: "Blues" "Pimps and Thieves" "Columbus" TOM CALLAHAN