Goin Back in the Times

With a career in music that spans almost 70 years, Homesick James Williamson has worked with many pivotal figures in blues, including Sleepy John Estes, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Boy Fuller, and Memphis Minnie. The recent release features James' strangely interesting guitar playing and still-strong singing on several vibrant country blues that serve as a link to a vastly rich past and a reminder of his place in the music's formative period. On the title track, James talks about friends who've gone on, while his Livin'' Like a Bear, Bitin' Me And Shakin' Me All Up And Down, and Memphis Minnie's Kissing in the Dark evoke a time and place, though now gone, that live on in this powerful and magical music. -The Record Roundup.