(Fat Possum/Shock)
***
Reviewer: Graham Reid
The blues haven't sounded this unadulterated for a while. Payton was, by all accounts, a dirt-poor farmer all his sixtysomething years, couldn't be seduced away from his beloved county in Mississippi for more than a few hours, and played guitar and sang the blues in a local
grocery store most every Saturday night. He died at the wheel of his tractor in May 1997.
The 10 tracks here, recorded at Junior Kimbrough's juke joint five years ago, have the ring of gritty realism. And while Payton may not be the most distinctive of singers or guitarists, when he sits down with Sam Carr banging the drums, there's a weird spirit conjured up which transcends whatever limitations he might have had.
Not that he could probably have cared, but you feel poor old Asie didn't live long enough to hear himself sampled, as he doubtless will be.
