When you think “harmonica”, the first musical style that comes to mind is blues. Or at a pinch folk, with the instrument strapped to the neck, like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. However, the harmonica can adapt to many other genres, and can sound different from the plaint of the bluesman. This is what Jean-Jacques Milteau proves to us in his new album Key to the Highway where he covers standards well beyond the blues.
From the opening, the scathing Maggie’s Farm by Bob Dylan sets the tone. The choice of repertoire covers rock with Sunshine of Your Love of Cream and Stuck in the Middle With You of Stealers Wheelfolk with Love the One You’re With by Stephen Stills, country with Angel From Montgomery by John Prine, or even soul. The second title pays tribute to Queen Aretha Franklin. Chain of Fools benefits from the inhabited voice of Canadian Harrison Kennedy.
The Dane Mike Andersen and the Americans Carlton Moody and Michael Robinson complete the quartet of singers who share the album’s ten tracks. Nine covers of classics and an original composition by Harrison Kennedy, Takin’ It Back.
The album which comes out on March 29 on the Dixie Frog label is still called Key to the Highway named after a great classic of the blues repertoire covered many times, from Big Bill Bronzy to Freddie King, including John Lee Hooker, Little Walter and Eric Clapton.
But in fact, Jean-Jacques Milteau wants to deviate from the expected cover, and not only titles the piece New Key to the Highway, but completely transfigures it by abandoning the original ternary shuffle to give it a languorous soul groove. It’s ultimately the cover of a blues standard that sounds the least bluesy of the whole album!
More surprisingly, not a single guitar appears on the entire record. Only the harmonica, a keyboard, a double bass and percussion support the singing. The six-string is nevertheless an essential instrument in the blues, country, folk or rock repertoire, especially since the covers include pieces by distinguished guitarists such as Tony Joe White with Rainy Night in Georgia or Stephen Stills with Love the One You’re Withreleased on his first solo album in 1970.
Where we might expect the guitar to be lacking the most is on the cover of Sunshine of Your Love by Cream. The ultimate blues-rock-psychedelic riff. But Jean-Jacques Milteau manages to perfectly appropriate the famous theme, and delivers a captivating solo. When we know that all these big names, and Cream in particular, were strongly inspired by the blues, hearing one of their compositions played by a minimalist group resembling those of the southern United States between the wars , it is ultimately a fair return of things.
The blues has influenced most of the musical styles we listen to today. Jean-Jacques Milteau and his musicians give us to hear what the opposite process would have given us, in a way, bluesmen taking inspiration from white popular music. A way of paying a double tribute to the references which punctuated the great successes of the 20th century, and at the same time to the pioneers who enabled this blossoming.
The album Key to the Highway released March 29 (DixieFrog Records)
Jean-Jacques Milteau will be in concert at New Morning on May 21.
All dates and information on the official website.
