Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Cypress Grove

I break every reviewing rule of mine by even (:)) reviewing a blues album with freshly minted music by a not very well-known musician.
This happens because besides being an album that particularly struck me for its excellent sound, it is also a shining example of what blues is (even in 2019) and what music, in general, should be for me: an art that conveys feelings, not necessarily "innovative," but that has and comes from a history, and this history is told out of necessity, urgency, because those who play have it under their skin, not for business and/or the greed for fame, but because there is their own truth to express.
All this is shown, but above all made us feel, by singer and acoustic and electric guitarist Jimmy Charles Holmes, better known as Jimmy "Duck" Holmes in the album "Cypress Grove" recorded by Easy Eye Sound of Nashville.
Holmes is now 72 years old, lives in Bentonia, Mississippi and is the owner of the historic and charming Blue Front Café on Highway 49, opened in 1948 by his parents and which, since its opening, has contributed to the development of blues in Mississippi.
Holmes has been active since the '70s, but began recording only in 2006, and is the last bluesman from the Bentonia school which had in Henry "Son" Stuckey the founding father (but who unfortunately never recorded anything) and in Skip James its historic diffuser.
Perhaps this is why there are as many as three covers of the aforementioned Skip, two open the album, the first is "Hard Times", with "Duck" solo which highlights his vibrant, powerful, and intense voice, just as vibrant, intense, and powerful is his acoustic guitar. The second is the title track, electric and dark, Holmes has a muddy voice, the guitar is hypnotic, and together with Sam Bacco's percussion it seems to sink the piece to its African roots, but Dan Auerbach (also the producer of the album) on the wah-wah guitar creates an atmosphere that points towards the East. The third is a powerful version of "Devil Got My Woman", with a fabulous rhythm section supported by the percussion and drum touches of Bacco and the surprising bass of Eric Deaton that weaves between the guitars.
Another historical classic is "Catfish Blues" by Robert Petway, Holmes rewrites it for the quartet giving it a hard sound and a contagious riff, Auerbach adds a dazzling solo in Hendrixian style.
"Little Red Rooster" is splendidly unrecognizable, once again with excellent bass work by Eric Deaton and at the end a brief but piercing duet between Leon Michaels on tenor sax and Dan's electric guitar.
In "Goin' Away Baby" by Jimmy Rogers, "Duck" creates a swirling and captivating version, while written by Holmes himself is "Gonna Get Old Someday" which is gritty with an intense groove.
In two songs, slide and sludgy guitar by Marcus King joins the group; in the version of "Rock Me", it seems that the quartet makes us slide on the mud of the Mississippi River, while in the reinterpretation of "All Night Long" (very different from other interpretations of Jimmy) King's slide floats above a really special arrangement with a South American rhythm.
In "Train Train" originally written by Jessie Mae Hemphill, Holmes' acoustic and Bacco's drums create a rattling rhythm, while Auerbach on electric creates warm melodies, at times evoking the sounds of a train.
The album closes excellently with the shadowy and funky "Two Women", another original by Holmes.
In short, I don't know if it was clear, but this is an album of great charm: deep, genuine, gritty, hypnotic, and muddy, where tradition and contemporaneity go hand in hand. This by "Duck" is a true declaration of love for the blues.