Joe Rollin Porter
Dirty Mean Old Blues
(self-released)
Take one look at singer-guitarist Joe Rollin Porter’s schedule and you quickly realize he’s one of the hardest working musicians in Northeast Ohio. Self-described as an “acoustic fingerstyle guitarist,” Porter plays early rural blues and American folk songs. Don’t expect to hear anything too mainstream on this disc. Recorded locally at Brian Straw’s Survival Kit, the album captures Porter’s ability to really hammer away at the six-string as it preserves all the intricate details of the man’s playing. You can hear him slapping vigorously on the strings in “Mississippi Boll Weevil” and “Flop Eared Mule.” In the press release that accompanies the album, Porter says he intended the album to be a “tribute” to the artists of the late 1920s that he covers — guys like Charlie Patton, Furry Lewis, Mississippi John Hurt, Dock Boggs, Dick Justice and Luke Jordan. It’s a testament to his talent that Porter adroitly puts his own personal stamp on the songs while honoring his musical heroes.
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2014.
