Entrance at Cake Shop
At Cake Shop last Tuesday, Guy Blakeslee resurrected the Delta blues in a ceremony that was as highly spiritualized, depressed, and sweet as those southern footstompers of the early 1900s. But his band Entrance's performance echoed a séance with Blakeslee straddling the line, pulling his spirit from a dark swirling psychedelic dimension while trying to keep his foot from going too far into the grave. The band was on the periphery but the drummer was tight and the bassist played some melodies that rivaled Blakeslee’s lead on guitar.
There were no organs, electric sitars, or eerie noises that surface on his fourth album Prayer of Death but the barebones performance served Blakeslee’s voice well. After breaking a string on both of his guitars, he finally asked the crowd if anybody knew how to change a string because he is has never been very good at it. Somebody volunteered and he fished the extra string and a tambourine out of his white canvas bag. The band stepped off the stage and Blakeslee sang while slapping the tambourine. The a cappella was hauntingly powerful.
Toward the end of the show the guitar with the new string required some tuning. He plays left-handed on a right-handed guitar strung upside-down and oddly can really shred despite having no formal training. However, he tunes each string individually by ear and does not use the other strings for reference. Who knows how long it would have taken him to perfect their harmony for the last song but after a few minutes he played it anyway. The notes were a bit crunchy but he heightened the mystery of his sound.
Many of the people in the audience at Cake Shop were sitting down, especially those in the front row, but there was one moment when everyone was locked into the beat, swaying back and forth listening to Blakeslee wail.
DOWNLOAD
Prayer of Death (MP3)
Grim Reaper Blues (MP3)
More MP3s here, here, and here. Also, blow your mind here. Prayer of Death was originally released on Entrance Records but comes out on Tee Pee Records November 14th.
