Dog My Cat
Harry Manx
NorthernBlues Music, Inc.
2001
13 tracks
Who says you can't mess with the blues? Harry Manx does it, and he does it well. Here's the trick. In music as in most things, before you decide to bend the rules, you should make sure you know those rules really well. Harry Manx has been playing and singing the blues for a very long time. He knows what will bend and what will break. Harry takes it to the limit, but he's always in control. The result is some really cool blues sounds with a difference.
In this electrified world, it's comforting to hear some traditional acoustic music played and sung well. Among this decade's surfeit of electric blues and rock and roll that thinks it's the blues, the quieter sounds of a Harry Manx provides a welcome respite. Manx invites his listener into that quiet room away from the party where people go to talk or maybe just sit awhile. The party will always be there, just outside the door, but it can wait a while.
This is traditional sounding blues with simple instrumentals and heartfelt vocals. The sound varies through the country blues of the American northeast through something more swampy and southern to straight acoustic back porch blues. It's the sound of Leadbelly, of Doc Watson, of Big Bill Broonzy and Muddy Waters and Jimmie Rodgers, of the simple blues of a bygone day. Yet it's also a contemporary folk-blues sound that seems to suit the 21st Century and feels somehow timeless.
On guitar and harmonica, Manx is clearly a master craftsman who brings to his performance a thorough understanding of his instruments and of the music he plays. His vocals are quiet but soulful, exposing the heart of the music not in a shout but by subtle expressiveness of voice. He sings with a sincerity that makes the songs more than just words, bringing the depth of feeling through to his listeners.
Performing this traditional music, Manx introduces a more contemporary element, a musical instrument invented only a few decades ago: the mohan veena. A cross between the Indian sitar and the slide guitar, the mohan veena has a range of rich sounds that can vary from a classical harp to traditional sitar to Hawaiian guitar reminiscent of Roy Smeck. The sound is at once exotic, mysterious, and intriguing. In the hands of Harry Manx,the mohan veena seems always to have been a blues instrument.
There are only four songs on this release not written by Harry Manx. Two are by Muddy Waters, one Jimmy Reed, and one traditional. The fit is flawless. Without prior knowledge, it would be hard to tell the Manx compositions from the others. The approach to performance is that consistent throughout.
Manx has included two short ragas in the set as well. This instrumental eastern music blends in effortlessly, not so different after all from the western blues songs among which it is set. Manx carries off this seeming contradiction of East and West with style.
Harry Manx is a Canadian original, a journeyman bluesman who has taken his music to the world, living and performing for years in France, Japan, and India before returning home, and now brings the music of the world back to the blues in Canada. While seeming at surface to be a straightforward acoustic blues release, Dog My Cat has a depth that reflects the richness of this musician's experience and talent.
Harry Manx has been busy since releasing this debut album, recording several more and receiving a number of Juno nominations in the process. To learn more about Harry Manx and his music, go to www.harrymanx.com.
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Review written: April 5, 2005
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