Deceiving Blues – Johnson, Miller & Dermody

Released: 2006 Orb Discs  ORB 1007

Tom Peterson - Victory Review

When three of the finest musicians in the Pacific Northwest go into a room, pull up chairs around a microphone, and let fly, it’s hard not to be prejudicial about the results. Of course, Deceiving Blues is terrific: must have, automatic, get it today, etc. What makes it SO good, though, is that local legends Orville Johnson, John Miller, and Grant Dermody have pushed each other into new places and spaces, drawing out sounds and abilities for this record that they’ve not achieved before. Johnson, already acclaimed as the King of Mongrel Folk and as such a seemingly endless repository of different old-timey styles, puts on a tour de force, trying a little something extra and astonishing on each tune. He can go from chirpy highs to guttural lows, and weave and bend every note in between. He’s never doing it just to show off, though: he’s complimenting his own Dobro, and playing against Miller’s guitar and Dermody’s supple harmonica. The well-known Johnson, however, is not the album’s greatest revelation. That would be Dermody. The harpist had the area’s album of the year a couple back (Crossing That River), on which he displayed a sly, tempered light baritone on the vocal cuts. This time, his buddies urge him to a menacing growl on “Soul of a Man” and “Depot Blues” that really works. Meanwhile, the musicianship is uniformly fantastic. Miller says that the group was looking for ways to stretch out, relax, and find something new in a mix of classics and originals, and they’ve succeeded. The group lays back some on the traditionally brisk “Stewball,” but then pushes the laconic “Polly Put the Kettle On.” This is the sound of genius at work: THAT’S why this is a must-have.

Deceiving Blues

Bob Tilling

This Seattle based acoustic trio, of Johnson (guitar, mandolin, dobro, washboard and vocals), Miller (guitar and vocals) and Dermody (harp and vocals), have been working together for over ten years but this is their first time in the recording studio for a full album, which is performed with great confidence and consummate skill. All three men are well known in their own rights both as performers and teachers, working sympathetically together giving each other plenty of space in which to express their own individual personalities.

The choice of material is fascinating, including titles from the likes of Charlie Patton, Memphis Slim, Tampa Red and Rev. Gary Davis, with a number that I have not heard recorded elsewhere for some while. I was, in particular, interested to hear Leadbelly’s Stewball where the vocals are led by Miller with some driving and intricate mandolin from Johnson. The harp from Dermody is quite superb throughout this set and he has a tone very much of his own and on Memphis Slim’s  Mother Earth his distinctive break is one of the highlights of this highly recommended set.

I have enjoyed Miller’s guitar playing since I first heard him back in the late sixties when he recorded for the “legendary” Blue Goose label owned by the late Nick Perls based in New York City. He is a clean and accurate player capturing the feel of many of the early players while adding much of his own personality. On the Son House classic Depot Blues he is particularly tight creating a perfect foil for the heartfelt vocals from Dermody. The dobro from Johnson on Sonny Boy Williams’ Springtime Blues sets him apart from many of his contemporary players while his vocals throughout are natural and impressive. His singing, in particular, on Rev. Gary Davis’s emotional original I Will Do My Last Singing is awesome capturing much of Davis’s intense honesty.

This is not a recreation of historic recording but a very personal and entertaining interpretation of some carefully selected material all performed with integrity and skill. This is a heartfelt outing by three serious and committed musicians performing naturally and without any pretensions and long may it continue!

Deceiving Blues

Pat Missin–Harmonica World Magazine

I loved Grant Dermody's solo album "Crossing That River", an eclectic blend of old time Americana, blues, jazz and calypso released a couple of years ago, so I expected that I would enjoy this album too. I was right. This CD finds Grant teamed with guitarist John Miller and Orville Johnson on mandolin, Dobro and washboard, all three of them taking turns at vocals. Any one of these musicians could make a great album by themselves, but the three combine to form something greater than the sum of its parts. The material covered on the CD is mostly straight ahead country blues, but they've avoided slavish recreations of the classics in favour of more personal interpretations, enhanced by recording the album "live" with no overdubs or studio trickery, making it sound almost like the musicians are right there in the room with you. There are a few well known tunes, such as "Trouble In Mind" and Henry Thomas's "Bull Doze Blues", but there are also some lesser known gems including a beautiful version of Charlie Patton's "Some of These Days". Throughout the whole CD, Grant's harmonica playing shows a keen sense of appropriateness - at times introspective, at other times playful, always perfectly in keeping with the mood of the song and the feel established by the other musicians. For this reason, I would highly recommend it to harmonica players as a text book example of how to integrate the harp into a small acoustic ensemble. More importantly, I would highly recommend it to roots music fans as an album of great music well played.

Deceiving Blues

Mark Hoffman

Lyin’, cheatin’, and sneakin’: the blues is rank with falsehoods and double-dealing. But there’s no deception on this disc. What you hear is the genuine article, direct from three titans of Northwest acoustic blues: Orville Johnson, John Miller, and Grant Dermody. Johnson is well-known for his innovative slide guitar and dobro playing and unbridled singing. Miller is renowned for his clean, complex fingerpicking in a variety of genres and styles, and for his guitar teaching credentials and many instructional tapes and DVDs. Harmonica player Dermody is less well known, but based on the evidence here and on his debut solo album last year, “Crossing That River,” he should be internationally famous.  He has technique and tone to spare, and an easy intimacy with the subtleties of blues music that’ll make you think he started blowing harp about when he learned to walk.

The three bluesmen first played together a few years ago when they were on staff at the Centrum/Port Townsend Blues Workshops and enjoyed it so much that they kept getting together on occasion, though they maintain separate careers. Their first CD together is a romp through twelve acoustic blues classics by Memphis Slim, Charlie Patton, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, Leadbelly, Tampa Red, Blind Willie Johnson, Son House, Gary Davis, and others. Like all classics, these tunes are full of the kind of mysterious yet somehow vaguely familiar lyrics and melodies that sound like they were not so much crafted as unearthed in a musty oak trunk of unknown provenance. They sound centuries old—ideal for the grand, old-time whoopin’, wailin’, moanin’, and hollerin’ that Johnson, Miller, and Dermody specialize in. Their arrangements, playing, and singing are superb throughout.

Prime cuts are the old warhorse “Stewball,” with Johnson and Miller’s wildly syncopated mandolin and guitar, Miller’s slap-your-knees funny vocal, and Dermody’s luscious harp solo. “Some of These Days,” associated with Charlie Patton (but based on a pop tune first recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1911), with Dermody’s slick harp and vocal and Johnson’s tasty mandolin. The sly, jazzy title tune, driven by Johnson’s dynamite dobro. (No wonder they call him a King of Mongrel Folk!) Johnson’s clever vocal on “Polly Put the Kettle On,” accompanied by Dermody’s tight, rhythmic harp. A propulsive version of Blind Willie Johnson’s famous “Soul of a Man” that’s pushed into hyperdrive by combined guitar, mando, and harp. Miller’s string-snapping guitar work on “Depot Blues.”  Johnson’s moving vocal and Dermody’s beautiful harp on Gary Davis’s “I Will Do My Last Singing in This World Somewhere.”

In fact, all these songs are keepers. No lie—this is a great acoustic blues CD!