Real House Blues

Album Review

The third album by blues-futurist singer/songwriter Mojo Stu (no relation, one assumes, to the Simpsons character Disco Stu) is more of the same that's found on his earlier albums Not for Nothin' and Good Gravy, but with a few new twists. For example, the throbbing "Hootchie Mama" kicks off with a prominent electronic dance beat that underpins Mojo Stu's gravelly, sly voice and bottleneck guitar; the song even has a pure pop bridge that brings it well out of the blues mainstream. The rest of the album is similar: firmly rooted in electric Chicago-style blues, but neither beholden to the style in a retro-fetishistic fashion nor welding on inappropriate contemporary elements. Other highlights include the mid-tempo, gospel-tinged shuffle "Leave

It Gone" and the scorching "My Mama, She Don't Love Me," which features both an impossibly low-register fuzz bass hook and some subtle turntable work.