Anthony Big A Sherrod With The Cornlickers – Right On Time – Nola Blue Records NB 019

I am not blown away easily, but this CD and its implications on raising the bar for all modern-day blues recordings cannot be understated.  The ten excellent cuts that comprise this Nola Blues Records outing should serve as a shot across the bow for not only all contemporary blues practitioners, but also for today’s “largest” blues record labels, forcing them to consider that perhaps the true preeminent blues being made and recorded is not coming from the usual suspects; rather, with some leg work and mileage on their tires, artists of Sherrod’s class can be found making the idyllic form of today’s blues.  And even more, it should be what the “largest” blues labels should be presenting.  This superlative compilation is the reason I suffer heeding the myriad “meh status” blues CDs that cascade through my hands on a constant basis!  Should I have found myself in a blues joint somewhere bearing witness to the formidable series of astounding blues found on this sterling CD, I would consider my modern-day blues aspirations complete and feel right in asking the Good Lord to bring me Home.  Here, my contemporary blues devotions have been fulfilled!  This jaw-dropping 2016 effort was remastered and again released by Nola Blue Records in 2022, and it stands as one of the most surprising modern-day blues assemblages I have considered in quite some time (aside from the prominent two fresh collections by The Dig 3, though they are completely differing styles).  With a lineage of being a son of a gospel singing dad, relishing in the plentiful profits of having Big Jack Johnson as his godfather and sage, and partaking of having the celebrated Cornlickers, Big Jack Johnson’s group, in tow, Sherrod’s broad innate guitar and vocal competencies were sure to affect a collection of this elevated magnitude.  For once, this commentator is at a loss for expressions to specify just how brilliant this CD is; there is not a throw away track to be found, and each song stands in a lofty locus upon its own merits.  One listen and any set of ears will identify the veracity of categorizing this as incomparable blues!  Pursue this for your personal collection!  Essential without qualification!

Below is this grand CD’s track list.

Song Titles

• Rumblin’ Stumblin’
• Find Me Another Woman
• Right On Time Baby
• Cold Feeling
• Shuffle In A
• Get Your Money
• Tried And Tried
• Train
• Someday
• Talk To Your Daughter