Quintus McCormick Still Called The Blues (CD)

Quintus McCormick

The moment Quintus McCormick started singing 'Hey Jodie!' I fell in love with his music. It was at his 2009 recording session on the very first song, very first take which got issued as the title track and the open-ing song on his Delmark debut. While I had heard a live recording that he was using as a demo and as something to sell off the bandstand I was not prepared for what was about to unfold that day. Quintus continued to deliver unbelievably soulful vocal per-formances of brand new original songs, one after another.

When the one-day session was done we had fourteen killer takes and I thought to myself 'Wow, this cat could be the next Johnnie Taylor!' And not only did he sing them but he also wrote them and played guitar too. The critics also loved the album. Blues Revue said Hey Jodie! is the best studio debut of 2009 and one of the best soul-blues albums of the past decade' while Living Blues said 'McCormick possesses a rich, soulful voice and an incredible versatility on guitar. At one moment he's laying down an edgy blues-rock intro, and the next he's shifting into funk mode with confidence and swagger.' Quintus always has music running through his mind. I've seen him at the Delmark of-fices and then he'll run to the piano and start running some chords. He's got to get it down on paper before it slips away. Then he'll tell me what's going on in the song and go into playing air drums vocalizing the different parts of the kit and squeezing up his face just to show how funky it's gonna be.

And it is. Like 'I Gotta Go' with the funky wah-wah clavinet. Less than a year later Quintus says he's got enough material for another CD. Typically it takes an artist longer to come up with good, fresh songs but true to his word the second CD Put It On Me was no less successful in delivering great original blues, R&B and soul music. Meanwhile the first CD is still selling in spite of illegal downloading and the bad economy. And now less than three years from the recording of the first CD Quintus is back again with Still Called The Blues, full of wonderful, inspired original material and a few covers with which Quintus has completely made his own. 'That's My Baby,' one of the new Q-joints, sounds more like a Minnie Ripperton jam than something you'd expect from the label that brought the world all those great Junior Wells and Magic Sam recordings but remember they also brought soul and funk to their blues. Who can make a man when he's cussin' and fussin' melt like butter when she's says 'What's wrong?' That's My Baby! Amen, brother! 'Oh! Darling' was of course recorded by The Beatles but it's not rock n roll. It's doowop.

Only The Beatles version didn't have the usual four part backup harmonies. Q drops it R&B like Wilson Pickett dropped 'Hey Jude.' Party on a Saturday, go to church on a sunday, finally recall you gotta go back to work on a Monday. Anyway you look at it—doesn't matter what genre of music anybody can pigeonhole any of this MUSIC into, it's Still Called The Blues! — STEVE WAGNER