California singer/songwriter Markus James—latter day blues man and self-described “Timbuktoubab”—is back with a new set of songs recorded with an ever-widening cast of West African and southern American collaborators. James travels regularly to Mali to collaborate, perform, and record with musicians there, mostly from the Sonrai community of Timbuktu and Niafunke, and with Wassoulou musicians from the south. In his most varied and satisfying album to date, James delivers 15 songs that range from brooding minimalism to rollicking fusions of African and American sensibilities.
The opener “I Won’t Let It” sets a vigorous pace with a tangle of kamelengoni (gourd harp) and guitar, including slide, and stinging electric lead. James never makes a show of his guitar riffing, but clearly he’s been absorbing Malian guitar language. Weaved together with rambling rap, the song culminates in a defiant refrain, backed by a deep, male vocal chorus. “Are You Ready (Mississippi Daze)” is another cranker, this time grounded in the rocking groove of Calvin Jackson playing drums in Oxford, Mississippi. James’s voice—sometimes a growling whisper, sometimes an edgy, blues-soaked moan—works especially well in this context. Similarly, on “Weather Vane,” a psychedelic re-Africanization of the Bo Diddley beat with wailing, overblown harmonica.
Other songs hew closer to the spacious, smoldering aesthetic James has always favored. “So Much Soul” is very nearly a tone poem with Mama Sissoko on ngoni (spike lute) and Vieux Farka Toure on guitar. “Drivin’ By” morphs a slow, bluesy vamp with the gruff, soulful stylings of Zoumana Tereta, the great master of southern Mali’s one-string fiddle, the sokou. James fearlessly combines traditions—Tuareg folklore with rock guitar on “Exile Tracks,” Wassoulou and Sonrai music on “All That You Can’t Keep,” kamelengoni and calabash loping north to south on “Mystified.” These joinings never feel forced, as they are always in service of the song. In James’s work, mood and sonic texture always trump stylistic purity, or lyrics for that matter. Interweavings of English and African languages slide by easily, for the emotion lies in the music and the singing, not the words.
Years of hard work have paid off for James, an artist who has done as much as anyone to kick open the doors too long separating American and West African roots music. James brings African music comfortably into the American fold, without denaturing or cheapening it. He also maintains a distinct persona in the process, showing that it is possible to pass through these transforming cultural doorways without losing yourself.
I Won't Let It
California singer/songwriter Markus James—latter day blues man and self-described “Timbuktoubab”—is back with a new set of songs recorded with an ever-widening cast of West African and southern American collaborators. James travels regularly to Mali to collaborate, perform, and record with musicians there, mostly from the Sonrai community of Timbuktu and Niafunke, and with Wassoulou musicians from the south. In his most varied and satisfying album to date, James delivers 15 songs that range from brooding minimalism to rollicking fusions of African and American sensibilities.