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On the closing track of Zion Crossroads, Corey Harris sings, "If you don’t keep your culture/ along come many vultures/ See dem in the sky/ above the ground/ They see some flesh/ and they come swooping down."
Since his 1995 debut Between Midnight and Day, a beautifully bare bones Delta blues record, Harris has absorbed the sounds he discovered in places like New Orleans, Mali and Cameroon and added muscle and skin to his musical identity. No vultures could pick away the body that he has created, nor is it any sort of Frankenstein-like pastiche of genres. Ever the anthropologist, Harris carefully studies and melds together the styles that he finds.
Getting together, feeling all right: Corey Harris adds a bit of Caribbean jerk to his blues tunes on Zion Crossroads.
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Zion Crossroads (named for both the Louisa County locale and the album’s spiritual and music convergences) is another step in Harris’ process, this time employing Jamaica’s 1970s roots reggae sound.
For someone only familiar with the blues man’s early work, the first listen to the new album’s reggae beats might be surprising. If it weren’t for Harris’ voice and subtle blues embellishments, one might initially mistake it for a 30-year-old Jamaican album. But if you follow the progression of Harris’ sound (especially 2005’s Daily Bread), it leads right to Crossroads.
Most of the album rests on a mid-tempo groove, which fits well with Harris’ laid-back vibe. "Ark of the Covenant" and "Heathen Rage" recall the soft New Orleans horns that first appeared on 1997’s Fish Ain’t Bitin’, and, on songs like "Sweatshop" and "Fire Go Come," his signature guitar licks seep through the steady off-beat.
Though Harris clearly set out to make an informed reggae album, he also exercises his knack for seamlessly bringing together different styles. "Walter Rodney," a tribute to the ’70s Guyanese activist, brings together pop catchiness, a Caribbean bob and a tinny, meandering guitar. The driving backbeat and fiddle accompaniment of "Plantation Town" both stands out and fits perfectly. One wouldn’t think that a country-tinged tune would find a spot on Crossroads, but the contrast between the song’s style and its indictment of slavery makes it the record’s most powerful moment of social consciousness.
"Plantation Town" says that "all jah children know to sing the blues," and that is a great way to look at Harris’ music. Though born in Denver, he has spent his career unearthing rhythms and melodies that already exist in his cultural identity. Zion Crossroads is one of his most ambitious digs, but Harris pulls it off with ease and subtlety.