Along with Eric Bibb and Corey Harris, Guy Davis is one of the black American musicians who followed Taj Mahal in looking to the early acoustic blues for inspiration. He’s a singer-songwriter and impressive multi-instrumentalist, at his best mixing strong stories with vintage blues. The title track is a delight, a stomping, semi-spoken piece in which he is backed by tuba and banjo for the story that “may or may not be true”, of a black fixer providing services from phone-hacking to drugs and sex to the Washington elite. Then there’s a poignant ballad, Wish I Hadn’t Stayed Away So Long, influenced by Pete Seeger, and a rousing harmonica tribute to Sonny Terry. Elsewhere, it’s more patchy. There are sturdy revivals of blues classics, from Willie Dixon’s Little Red Rooster to Tommy Johnson’s Cool Drink of Water, but the Dylan and Donovan covers are unremarkable.
