The blues is an area of music I don’t tend to tread on a regular basis, but some tracks strongly resonate in a way other genres can’t.
Grinnin’ In Your Face is as pure as the blues can be. Vocals and the occasional hand claps of Son House are the only instruments on the track. But this sparsity manages to convey a time and place. I can put this track on, close my eyes and be taken into the past of North america, to open fields and long wooden porches.
The gravity of Son House’s voice provides a weight of personal experience. Mix it with the hand claps that seem as if they are backing up a melody in Son House’s head we’re not privy to and your left with an intriguing piece of music that manages to both be historic and timeless: