This gig started with local artist Paul Parker on acoustic guitar and vocals who kicked off with the famous Blues Brothers film song ‘She Caught the Katy’ with lovely guitar picking and powerful vocals.
He has a new record coming out soon and he played one of its tracks ‘Driving Just to be With You Tonight’ and then played one of his earliest songs with ‘You Feel Nothing But The Good’ from his first album which the audience appreciated. He finished with ‘Hurting from You’ from 10 years ago with its great guitar picking and passionate vocals.
After a short break Mississippi MacDonald took to the stage with his Gibson electric guitar, ready to entertain the packed pub with songs from his brand-new album ‘Slim Pickin’ (released the day after the gig) and some old favourites from his repertoire.
He has a great unique deep south bluesy voice and a great traditional blues guitar style with heal tapping to accompany each song. Even though many of the songs were brand new to them the crowds really got into what Mac was playing and each song was applauded and appreciated.
He got his nickname when at school where most of his classmates were into Nirvana and similar while he was into BB King and Muddy Water and had actually been to the Mississippi region (and could spell it correctly!).
He kicked off with ‘Strange Things Happening Every Day’ with its great deep south vocals with great blues guitar, and followed with a slower number with great picking and great passion in the vocals with ‘Goin’ Down Really Slow’ with great Deep South feel.
Another new song was ‘I Got to get to Walkin’ with its great plaintive vocals with great blues guitar, which was about Mac’s time spent with other musicians in Memphis, Tennessee.
Going back to his very popular Heavy State Loving Blues album we had ‘Blind Leaving the Blind’, recorded with Rufus Thomas’s daughter in Memphis, Tennessee.
A slow song with gospel overtones was ‘Hang it Over’ with strong vocals and slow tempo guitar picking.
Benny Turner, Freddie King’s brother inspired the next song with ‘Stepping In’ with a plug and thanks to local Taf Rock (a Blues enthusiast & reviewer) for encouraging Mac to play at the Groundhog Blues Club.
Next was ‘My Bad Attitude’ from new album with strong bluesy vocals sung with passion with lovely guitar work. ‘Heading South’ was a great gospel inspired song but great bluesy vocals and intricate guitar picking, about going down to Louisiana.
‘I Was Wrong’ about a girl who left with its great rhythm beat and bluesy strong vocals and then picking up the tempo the next song with great vocals was ‘Call Me Mississippi’ which its great rhythm guitar underpinning the song.
As Mac explained he was just back from Manchester making a film about its blues history and Blues venues including a Turkish restaurant where Albert King played in the 1990s.
‘Heavy State Loving Blues’ the title track from a previous album was performed with its strong bluesy vocals and great heavy guitar picking backing, followed by ‘Come Back Baby’ with its great guitar work and foot tapping with Mac’s distinctive vocals.
He finished with ‘Walking by Myself’ with its great guitar picking and Mac’s strong blues style vocals.
After much applause and wanting more for an encore he played another song from the new album ‘Sad Songs’ which Mac wrote one evening thinking about Freddy King.