If Karl Malone were a musician, you could bet your spitcan he'd be a Delta Blues man. One reason is because he grew up in Louisiana, not far from Delta country. But so did Kenny Wayne Shepard, and that gangly whiteboy, whose father was a radio station executive, is about as much of a blues man as Elton John.

No, there's something more to why Karl would be a blues man, and it all has to do with attitude. Malone doesn't travel the world and get busted for pot in the off-season. He drives one of several Mack trucks he owns, or he goes fishin', or he herds cattle on his ranch, or he goes huntin', or he rides one of his many Harleys, or he wrassles with Dennis Rodman. Karl Malone is a blues man, and he's got the illegitimate children to prove it.

Paul "Wine" Jones, a born- and- bred Mississipian who's a welder-- not a musician-- by trade and who paid for his house "with the sweat of his brow," may not have children he doesn't know about, but he still has that salt- of- the- earth upbringing that screams to be told in road house anthems. He'll decide whether he's lived the blues or not, but he certainly hasn't lived the life of a radio executive's son.

Mule's juke joint boppin' blues is not a novelty act. "Mad Dog On My Trail" may as well be an electrified Robert Johnson ditty. "Bad Times In Mississippi" is a working man's anthem that virtually sweats out hard times. Jones' mesquite baritone wails as his fingers play standard riffs carelessly but proficiently.

Some may complain that there aren't enough tempo changes or that this is the same blues album that hundreds of other blues men have made. But that's the point. Listen to Mule and you'll understand that the blues is nothing but folk music, and folk music's first objective is to tell stories. Jones tells ten mighty fine stories-- not the kind that sell disposable records and make so-called guitar prodigies rich, but the kind that are passed down as family heirlooms, along with beat-up guitars and moonshine recipes.

-Shan Fowler

"Bad Times In Mississippi"

[Real Audio Stream]