''Downhome Sophisticate'' is an album by the American
blues musician
Corey Harris
Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969, in Denver, Colorado, United States) is an American blues and reggae musician, currently residing in Charlottesville, Virginia. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic ...
, released in 2002.
The album peaked at No. 4 on ''
Billboards Blues Albums chart. Harris promoted the album by touring with his band, 5X5.
Production
The album was produced by Harris and
Jamal Millner. Millner also played guitar on ''Downhome Sophisticate''.
Henry Butler
Henry Butler (September 21, 1948 – July 2, 2018) was an American jazz and blues pianist. He learned piano, drums, and saxophone in school. He received a college degree and graduate degree and taught at the New Orleans Center for Creative ...
played piano on "Black Maria".
Critical reception
Robert Christgau noted that the "rock-type poetry ... makes like social conditions are as real as love and dreams."
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' stated that "on 'Santoro', which concerns social injustice and racial profiling, Harris vents his frustration in a voice that rises just above a whisper to ask: 'So why you figure they be so jumpy on the trigger. So quick like that, to assassinate black?'"
''
Bass Player
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low br ...
'' called the album "a revelation—a nasty, Old School blues album with tinges of boogie-woogie, African soul, hip-hop, blazing yet sensitive slide guitar, and pristine production." ''
The Commercial Appeal
''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, als ...
'' thought that the album "shows that one can embrace roots and still be forward looking ... Rarely has traditional sounded more modern."
The ''
Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...
'' opined that "this definitely isn't for your 12-bar, hard-core crowd, but for those who're a little more interested in where the blues and grown-up R&B might be headed in the not-to-distant future."
[
]AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
wrote that "it's an easy leap for Harris from folklore to urgent urban settings; his depiction of a police car as a fearsome, prowling Biblical beast makes 'Santoro' especially disturbing."
Track listing
# "Giddyup" - 0:18
# "Frankie Doris" - 2:52
# "Money on My Mind" - 3:31
# "Don't Let the Devil Ride" - 2:10
# "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning" - 2:53
# "Capitaine" - 2:06
# "Santoro" - 2:36
# "Fire on the Radio" - 0:27
# "Fire" - 5:09
# "BB" - 2:18
# "Downhome Prelude" - 0:09
# "Downhome Sophisticate" - 3:17
# "Sista Rose" - 6:28
# "Black Maria" - 4:32
# "Chinook" - 2:30
# "Money Eye" - 4:04
# "Where the Yellow Cross the Dog" - 1:53
# "F'shizza (Santoro Remix)" - 5:40
References
{{reflist
2002 albums
Corey Harris albums
Rounder Records albums