Shane Dwight’s “A Hundred White Lies”
by Jim White
In keeping with the BlueNotes tradition of sometimes writing about music that’s not exactly blues, but still good music, we offer up a new CD by Shane Dwight, a tough and original guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Dwight is a practitioner of what we seem to call these days Americana, which seems to be shorthand for music with its roots in the fertile soil of American music history — blues, country, rock and everything else in our musical family tree.
I suppose I could try to justify Dwight’s presence here in BlueNotes by listing all the blues festivals where he’s performed, but blues fests these days aren’t always filled with classic blues. If you’ve been to one lately, you know what I mean.
But I digress.
Shane Dwight’s latest CD, “A Hundred White Lies” (R-Tist Records), is a set of all-but-one original material, and according to the PR material accompanying the release, written during a dark period in Dwight’s life that resulted in broken hearts and a broken marriage. Not to sound frivolous, but that sounds like the blues to me.
And the songs, while introspective, are not a set of grim and melancholy ballads. They range from the gentle and elegant opener “Call Me” to the raucous “Love’s Last Letter,” a passionate, hard-driving cry that’s considerably enhanced by the soulful backing vocals of Bekka Bramlett, daughter of Bonnie, who was half of the great Delaney and Bonnie of the ’70s.
Then there’s the coutryish blues of “True Love’s Gone,” with equally effervescent backing by three of the four McCrary sisters, purveyors of some of the finest gospel around (they have a new CD that will appear here soon).
The blues appear more full-blown in “Love That’s True” and “I’m Talkin’ to You,” the latter a tough, hard-driving track. The final two songs, “Lose My Number” and “Leave the Light On” (again featuring soulful shout by Bramlett) are good old-fashioned roadhouse rock ‘n’ blues that will leave you dancing in the aisles — or someplace.
The entire production gets pushed to another level by “Dick 50,” the recording and touring band of the very great Delbert McClinton, with a special nod to Kevin McKendree on keyboards.
It may not be classic blues, but “A Hundred White Lies” is a very good album by a talented musician and songwriter. Give it a try.
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