Grant Dermody & Frank Fotusky – Digging In John’s Backyard (CD)

Description

Release Date: 2022

Label: Independent

Track List

1. Hey Hey Daddy Blues
2. Peach Tree Blues
3. Police Dog Blues
4. Good Morning Judge
5. Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar
6. You Better Lie Down
7. Boats Up River
8. Shake It And Break It
9. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
10. Seattle Rainy Day Blues
11. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
12. Papa’s On The Housetop
13. Alberta

Notes

Blues fans should be familiar with harmonist Grant Dermody who released one of 2019’s best blues albums, My Dony, produced by the great roots producer, Dirk Powell. This time out, although Powell just does a superb job mixing the album, this is a duo recording featuring the acoustic blues guitarist, Frank Fotusky, who hails from southern New Jersey, paired with the Seattle-bred Dermody, considered one of the premiere harmonica players in both acoustic and Chicago blues.  As the title alludes to “John,” that reference is to the late John Jackson, the Virginia born and bred guitarist who mastered the Peidmont style of blues, popularized by the Reverend Gary Davis, and later in the ‘70s and onward by guitarist John Cephas and the duo Cephas & Wiggins (Harmonica Phil Wiggins). Jackson passed in 2002 but the connections between these players – Dermody, Fotusky, Cephas, and Jackson are fascinating.