Old-school electric urban blues lives on at Delmark records. Eddie C. Campbell's Spider Eating Preacher (Delmark 819) is one of the latest and it gives you a nice hour of originals, classics and general good doings on this, his second for the label. There's some nice horn section riffing much of the time. Eddie plays a reverb-drenched Fender with the old feel.
It's the soul blues, as seen in things like a bluesy version of "Skin Tight," or the classic "Cut You Loose," and that's where he is coming from.
Eddie has a laid-back vocal style, in his own way, with a deceptively casual delivery that Jimmie Reed and Slim Harpo made such a signature part of their thing. Eddie doesn't sound like them, though. He sounds like himself.
He sounds so much like himself that it took me a few listens to get onto his wave length. After you live with it, it's a wave length to get with.
So, hey, here's a blues cat that's been too little exposed to the blues lovers out there. If you're looking for a new cat to dig that's doing it today, Eddie C. Campbell is a guy to hear.
