This is a good cd. I think you would like it.
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With the very first track, out of the body of this skinny white man comes a grizzled, raspy black man’s voice.  “Yonder Comes the Blues” is a slurring, staggering, authentic and whiskey-fueled ode to bad luck with deliberately sloppy chord changes and plenty of heart and soul.  Little Johnny Kantreed doesn’t just sing the blues – he’s grown up with the sound, he knows the history, and he can belt them out with the best.

These songs paint dark watercolors and put me right into the frame.  Old houses with decaying front porches.  Walking barefoot on torn-up streets, drinking homemade red wine, seeking fame and fortune.  Bad women and even worse decisions.  But Kantreed knows that the purpose of the blues isn’t to wallow in misery.  He delivers many of these songs with a sly, wicked grin, including my personal favorite, “Relatives.”  He claims to be kin to a woman who spends her day smoking in bed and listening to the police scanner, a cousin who had a shotgun wedding to a carnie and was divorced by age fifteen, and a grandpa with a belt buckle as big as a serving tray.  He sings that the scary thing for him is that all these people know where he lives.  The scary thing for me is that I believe him.

A special tip of the battered pageboy cap goes to Micol Davis, who adds her lovely vocals to two of these tracks.  She has a Dolly Parton quality that melts perfectly into this sound.  

“I had the blues so bad one time, it put my face in a permanent frown,” Kantreed sings at one point.  Maybe.  But there’s too much spirited mischief in these songs to make me believe that he’s really down for the count.
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I've been a fan of Johnny's since I heard "Front Porch Blues", so "Acoustic Alley Blues" is a real treat for me. Besides the captivating guitar work, which has soothed many a working hour for me this summer, the lyrics in this set are wonderfully entertaining. After I checked to make sure we weren't really cousins ("Relatives"), I slipped into a daydream during "Flat World", courtesy of Micol Davis' beautiful vocal harmony. And "You Could Do A Lot Worse"...well, you know who you are. And I hope you do.
I love acoustic guitar and clever lyrics, and I'm tempted to quote from every song, but instead I'll just say that this is a great CD and you really ought to check it out. I've heard it's a little John Prine, I thought maybe a little Arlo Guthrie, but it's definitely all Johnny, and when Johnny's a-pickin', I'm a grinnin'!
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What else can I say? This cd is one of my favorites this year. I can't wait to hear more!
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