Sun Might Shine on Me

To call Seattle's white harmonica master a bluesman would only tell you part of the story. For sure, he understands the Mississippi Delta tradition and there are versions here of blues classics such as Lead Belly's ‘Boll Weevil’ and Big Joe Williams’ ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. But like Carolina Chocolate Drops or Abigail Washburn, Dermody draws on a wider panoply of old-time American music to explore all the many roots and branches of what used to be called the country blues. He sings in a pleasant, easy voice that recalls another white blues adventurer, Kelly Joe Phelps, and his evocative harmonica playing – which can wail or caress in equal degree – is backed by an entirely acoustic ensemble featuring various combinations of guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, dobro, piano and upright bass. The blues is his principal argot, but he mixes in elements of Appalachian mountain music, Cajun and gospel, while on the instrumental ‘Sail Away Ladies’ you can hear how a tributary of Irish music has fed into the rich American vernacular stream. It's not music that's going to change anyone's life, but there's something deeply satisfying about its honesty and lack of artifice.