Love My Stuff

Album Review

Paul Geremia emerged at the tail end of the ‘60s folk/blues boom, cutting his first album in 1968. Ever since, he has single-mindedly pursued his blues muse, carrying the torch of traditional acoustic blues all the way into the 21st century. Though Geremia never previously recorded many of the tunes on his live album Love My Stuff, it nevertheless offers a good introduction to the Rhode Island-born bluesman's approach. Like Dave Van Ronk and Jorma Kaukonen, Geremia remains faithful to the old-school Delta and country blues template, and offers a vital, visceral interpretation of that sound, but never resorts to mimicry, consistently stamping his own identity on every song. As is so often the case with great bluesmen, Geremia is probably best encountered in concert, so these live recordings — mostly from the 2000s, with a couple of ‘80s cuts thrown in — capture him at his best. In addition to tackling tunes by Mississippi John Hurt, Leadbelly, Sleepy John Estes, Charley Patton, etc., Geremia offers up some early jazz and jug band songs of a similar vintage, making it all stream seamlessly together. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the small handful of original tunes on Love My Stuff sound like they could easily have come from the catalogs of one of the aforementioned blues heroes. Bridging the gap between trad blues and new material is notoriously hazardous for postwar bluesmen, but Geremia makes that move (like most others) with ease. ~ J. Allen, Rovi