Mojo’s Cold Shot: Paul Reddick

Ahh, the kids are back in school and out of my hair, which opens up wide vistas of time to revisit some old favorites on the iTunes playlist, stuff with which Mojo can whistle while he works. Probably new to youÁ¢€”indeed, we of Popdose love to dote on lesser-known but wonderfully talented musiciansÁ¢€”is the one and only Paul Reddick, a Canadian harp player whose vintage gear propels his sound back into the late 1950s.

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As a solo artist, Reddick’s put out four albums on Northern Blues, but I first came in contact with this monsterÁ¢€”and I mean a big personality as well as a big talentÁ¢€”while he was playing with the Sidemen, who released the album Rattlebag in 2001. It’s been eight years, and the record still resonates with me. Part of that can be attributed to the gritty, perfectly blues-appropriate attitude, and partly because the “vintage sound” of the production rewinds the tape back to 1950s and 1960s style blues recordings, when tape was king and little imperfections in the recording made the blues sound more authentic.

Whatever mojo he’s got working, it sure sounds good. I leave you with the cuts from that album “Sleepy John Estes” and “One Way Trip,” and hope it inspires you to invest more bandwidth in checking out this solid blues cat, who also at times flashes a country-folk bent.