429 Records

Seasoned with plenty of tremolo, slapback reverb, and pedal steel, Papa Mali’s Music is Love epitomizes the bygone sounds of the Southwest, working its way through a dozen songs that traverse the soggy bottom bayous of Louisiana as well as the swinging Texas juke joints of Austin. Haunted house grooves (“Bottle Up and Go”) and echoes of spirituals (“Lonesome Road”) sit astride funked-out rockers (“I’m a Ram”) and slow-down lowdown blues (“Let’s Burn Down the Cornfield”). Mali’s a player of many talents, showing off his multiple sides of acoustic, electric, and slide guitar, held in check by Crescent City legend Johnny Vidacovich on drums and the unassuming production of John Chelew, who humbly allows Mali’s voodoo-delic inclinations the air to permeate. Chelew’s previous credits include work with John Hiatt, and Mali’s “Bought and Sold” carries that same sensibility of tales torn and ragged against patient performance. Mali’s effort is dug in deeper in its Southern foundation than Hiatt’s heartland slices, and pays respect to a vintage record-making process reflective of the 1950s and ‘60s without feeling self-conscious. Instead these choices darken Mali’s already coarse and eerie voice, often times feeling as though the album was more exorcised than recorded, conjuring up the spirits and stories both beneath the surface and from the heavens above.