Scott H. Biram: Nothin’ but Blood

Updated:

September 14, 2018 9:28 am

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Scott H. Biram
Nothin’ But Blood
(Bloodshot)
3.5 out of 5 stars

He might be a one man band but blues/country roots rocker Scott Biram has enough of the devil in him to sound like a full group playing in hell. He’s not shy about it either, tossing “f” bombs while recounting various sexual adventures in Mance Lipscomb’s “Alcohol Blues” and rocking out about “Church Point Girls” with a demonish, snarling growl that would send Howlin’ Wolf running for cover. Just to hammer that point, he charges through Wolf’s notorious version of “Back Door Man” with a salacious croak that leaves no room for misinterpreting what “the men don’t know but the little girls understand” means.

Perhaps that’s why he spends about half the album in salvation mode. He gets his religion on for the original “Gotta Get to Heaven” and two traditional gospel tunes “Amazing Grace” (creepy with just voice, harmonica and a thunderstorm behind it) and “John the Revelator,” along with one of his own that sounds just as authentic. He brings the deep swamp for a particularly spooky “Jack of Diamonds” and unplugs on a folksy “Slow & Easy” as he recounts walking through his garden with one black thumb in the album’s most reflective moment.

A few subtle overdubs and Biram’s sparse yet sparky percussion help fill out the sound, making it feel fuller than the one man band concept implies. That said the stripped down and compressed opening to “Around the Bend” exudes an unsettling atmosphere that is quickly broken by an overdriven slide guitar and a garage punk attack, both thunderous and nakedly raw.

It’s a classic backwoods heaven and hell scenario played out by mixing enough musical influences from blues, rock, country and the church to keep it riveting without seeming random. Biram’s deep, dusky voice is malleable and driven hard to sound convincing on the album’s gloomiest and most inspirational moments, not an easy balancing act. This is tough, unvarnished music played for keeps, not for the squeamish or those afraid of the sight, or sounds, of blood. Hal Horowitz