The 1990s saw something of a revival in the blues, and interestingly enough, among some African-Americans, after the form became if not predominantly, then more prominently white. Among the most important were Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Corey Harris, and with both, the same pattern occurred, as demonstrated with Harris’s 1995 debut, worth revisiting here. Harris later went on to do much more innovative albums, either on his own— as with Greens From The Garden— or his collaboration with the late, great Henry Butler. His base, though, was in Delta blues, and his first album was about as close as he came to traditionalism. Hart, interestingly, did something similar with Big Mama’s Door. Between Midnight And Day is a fine album of skilled guitar work, heartfelt singing, and homage to tradition, with some nice traditional pieces that manage not to feel like mere re-creations. Harris’s guitar work, if one is honest, is not sufficiently virtuosic for this kind of album to stand on its own terms, compared to his artistic vision on later albums like Greens From The Garden, where his creativity elevates the album to something else. Yet as a first entry, Between Midnight And Day shows that Harris was going somewhere. He had enough skill and understanding of tradition to build, but not yet an idea of where to go with it. Hart, too, had an understanding of tradition, but it took until his second album, Territory, to figure out how to innovate with the skill and understanding of tradition. Hart’s guitar skills were, perhaps, a bit more impressive, making his debut more interesting as a stand alone, but Harris needed a little more time to grow into a vision, which is fine. One need not be a guitar virtuoso, but one needs something. Play something more dazzling than anyone else, and you don’t need to reinvent the form to have every music fan in the palm of your hand. Re-conceptualize the form, and you don’t need the fastest fingers in town. The rarest artists reinvent everything with virtuosic skill, but some have a combination of skill and vision into which they need to grow. Like Hart, Harris was in that camp. His first album showed some growing pains, as one heard in comparison with Greens From The Garden, which still sounds innovative decades later. That says a lot. Between Midnight And Day was and remains a fine album of new blues traditionalism, but it took time for Harris to do his best work.

Brand	N/A
Rating	3.9 (11 ratings)
Price	$12.52
Category	Acoustic Blues

Between Midnight & Day