Hey Jodie!

May 3, 2010

Catalog No.: DE 801

Format: CD

Release Date: September 22, 2009
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Quintus McCormick has been a fixture in the Chicago blues-club scene since the mid-90s, but this is his first studio album as a leader. In a nice marketing touch, and for the edification of some listeners, Delmark includes a definition of a Jodie on the cover: “n. 1. back door lover.”

The album’s style straddles the line between modern urban blues and southern soul, the common theme being wronged lovers and “troubled business.” McCormick is a first-rate guitarist, and his band—which includes horns, harmonica and backing vocals—stands firmly behind him. The result is a polished and smooth sound, with musicianship edging out soul in some parts.

McCormick can also sing, and his vocal range works perfectly with the way he’s arranged the music. The mix is punchy but uncluttered, so the album really pops out of the speakers. The operative mode is “modern,” which means Hey Jodie! sounds closer to Alligator blues records from the ‘90s than Chess blues records from the ‘60s. Delmark is a veteran Chicago label, so it’s fair to say this album represents a modern example of their catalog, as opposed to what they were selling in the early 1970s. This is noted so a listener is forewarned against “nostalgia-blues.”

Fourteen of fifteen tunes on the album are McCormick originals, and he proves an able songwriter. The sequence offers a nice mix of tempo and topic, as well as parts for each musician to shine. The band sounds like they’ve been working together, live, for a long time, with a very tight beat and nice licks and hooks coming at opportune times, no one stepping on anyone else. There’s a nice contrast between songs like the title track and the pure blues number “What Goes Around Comes Around.” Several tunes are of the shuffle-blues variety, and others are up-tempo soul.

The band’s Myspace site offers streams of several songs from the album, so an interested listener can pick their preferences. My favorites are “Fifty/Fifty,” “Get That Money,” “Plano Texas Blues,” and the band’s enthusiastic send-up of “Let The Good Times Roll,” which closes the album. To my ears, the weakest tune is the title track, because it’s delivered too “shiny” and not soulful enough for the song and the lyrics. But it’s certainly not a terrible song—there are no duds on this album.

Here’s hoping Quintus McCormick keeps this fine band together and keeps putting out albums as good as Hey Jodie!.

Reviewed by Tom Fine