Terry "Big T" Williams and Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson Meet Me In The Cotton Field Broke & Hungry Records

Meet Me In The Cotton Field, Broke & Hungry Records’ latest venture, is a collaboration between two venerable Clarksdale, MS musicians, Terry “Big T” Williams and Wesley “Junebug” Jefferson, that continues the label’s impressive streak of releases.

Williams, formerly a student of Clarksdale’s legendary Johnnie Billington, has been regarded as one of the area’s best guitarists due to his long association with Big Jack Johnson (appearing with him on the Deep Blues soundtrack and film), as well as with the Jelly Roll Kings and the Stone Gas Blues Band. More recently, fronting his own bands, he has also received attention for his fiery vocal style, which is occasionally reminiscent of Muddy Waters. He has worked off and on with Jefferson for over 20 years.

Jefferson is a long-time fixture of the Clarksdale blues scene, playing guitar, then drums, and eventually settling on bass. The list of musicians Jefferson has played form a veritable Who’s Who of the Clarksdale scene, including Big Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, Sam Carr, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Willie “Rip” Butler, Little Jeno Tucker, and James “Super Chikan” Johnson. In the early ’90s, he also appeared on the Rooster Blues classic cassette-only anthology Clarksdale, Mississippi: Coahoma the Blues and a live CD from the Do Drop Inn.

Meet Me In The Cotton Field disc is a mixture of acoustic and electric tracks. The acoustic tracks were recorded at Jimbo Mathis’ Delta Recording Studio in Clarksdale and include the opening cut, a vocal-only take of “Meet Me In The Bottom” by Jefferson that evokes the lonely, haunting mood of a hot summer night in the Delta. Other highlights from this session include Jefferson’s “The Wreck,” an autobiographical track about a harrowing accident Jefferson had in a van several years ago, and Williams’ track, “Incarcerated Blues,” a solo track that would have been a good fit in the Stovall Plantation-era Muddy Waters catalog. Williams actually covers a Stovall-era Waters track as well (“Can’t Be Satisfied”).

“Let’s Go Down To Red’s” is a tribute to one of Clarksdale’s foremost juke joints (and the recording site for the electric tracks) complete with a roll call of many of the familiar names on the local scene, and the title track, another autobiographical track by Jefferson, who paints a vivid picture of Delta life with his lyrics.

The Red’s Lounge tracks include a funky cover of Frank Frost’s “Pocketful of Money,” driven by Jefferson’s droning bass, and “Catfish Blues,” a stunning seven-minute version of the classic where the past and present incarnations of Mississippi Delta blues crash head-on with fascinating results.

These kinds of recordings are getting harder and harder to come by. Authentic and raw, this is absolutely the real deal. You can almost feel the rich Delta soil oozing between your toes when you listen to this one. Blues lovers are advised to seek this one out at all costs.

--- Graham Clarke