Skunkmello

Skunkmello is an album by the American musician Guy Davis, released in 2006. He supported it with a North American tour. Skunkmello peaked at No. 12 on Billboards Blues Albums chart. It was nominated for a Blues Music Award for "Best Acoustic Album".

Production

The album was produced by John Platania. On many tracks Davis adopted the persona of "Samuel Skunkmello", a thief and lazy teller of tales. "Maggie Campbell Blues" is a cover of the Tommy Johnson song. "Going Down Slow" is a version of the St. Louis Jimmy Oden song. "Hooking Bull at the Landing" was inspired by a favorite phrase of Davis's father, Ossie Davis. "Uncle Tom Is Dead " is a remixed version of the 2004 NPR "Song of the Year".

Critical reception

The Gazette wrote that "Davis is one of the finest contemporary practitioners of traditional blues and old-time musical styles." The Times Colonist noted that "Davis has been playing country blues so long that even his newly-penned original songs conjure up the music's 19th-century origins in the American South." DownBeat determined that the power of the music "rests in its awareness of the poise and dignity that characterized his ancestors in ungenerous white America and the pointed feelings it forces on his creative imagination." The Irish Times said that "the styles vary, but country blues is obviously where he lays his hat and the album fairly jumps with lively examples." The Province opined that "'The Chocolate Man' sounds like vintage Mississippi John Hurt, while 'Blues in the Midnight Hour' could be a Norah Jones hit."