Blues 4 Brews: This reoccurring post will review Blues LPs and partner the individual songs with the various beers that are available on the Three Spirits Brewery menu.
I want to preface this post by giving a brief history of the blues and alcohol consumption in America. Blues music was created by African slaves displaced in the Southern American region. It serves as the foundation for a lot of American born music that came after it: like rock, funk, soul, country, hip hop, EDM, and jazz. Yes, jazz. Jazz uses a lot of elements from the Blues and plays Blues standards. It’s America’s original Folk Music. It’s safe to say that without the Blues, we wouldn’t have any other genre of secular music. My Grandmother, her siblings, my Parents and Aunts and Uncles all love the Blues. My Uncle plays drums for Buddy Guy, and he used to play for Eddy Clearwater and Mavis Staples, so it’s easy to see the Blues was and is all around me. The last concert I went to was a Blues concert, Mavis Staples & Buddy Guy to be exact. I love the Blues, and hear it in all the other genres I like.
At the same time that the Blues was being birthed, Americans overall were drinking more home brews and hard ciders than milk or water (which was deemed unsafe to drink-for the most part). At house parties, shacks, juke-joints and speakeasys, the Blues was going and the Brews were pouring. | Bessie Smith, one of the Best Blues Singers to date has a song title that adds support to my statement: Gimme a Pigfoot & a Bottle of Beer. Billie Holiday & Nina Simone both covered this song later and gave it more notoriety. The Blues and Brews have continued to maintain a symbiotic relationship. |
One of our sponsors, Three Spirits Brewery continues with this age-old tradition of being a Black-owned Brewery that creates good ‘Comfort Beers’. For these reasons, I wanted to dedicate a space on this blog page for this truly original and great American art form created by the descendants of Africans in America...what we call-'The Blues'. I also wanted to highlight our sponsor's great selection of Craft Beers! I think both the Blues and Three Spirits Brewery are beyond deserving of it. Be sure to check them out online for more information, ways to purchase merchandise, and visit the taproom when you’re in the Charlotte, NC area!
For the first Blues for Brews LP review, I chose Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud LP. This LP was the British and budding American rock artists way of showing the respect they had for Muddy’s music. Most of them had brought a resurgence of interest into the Blues by playing covers with a psychedelic rock tinge, studying the Blues, its pioneers and looking for Blues songs and artists on record. They took the classic Muddy Style and electrified it.
The result is this 1968 eight cut seminal LP that’s been sampled by everyone from Cypress Hill (Ultraviolet Dreams) to the Black Keys (She’s Long Gone). This is one of my favorite Blues LPs. It's a great mesh between the old and the new style of Blues, which later would become psychedelic rock/prog rock. Shout out to 1968 for the Blues! Taj Mahal’s Natch’l Blues LP came out the same year as Muddy’s Electric Mud. Both are in my top 10.
The first track on Side A is the Willie Dixon penned classic: I Just want to Make Love to You. It starts off with a hard guitar and drum intro. There’s a lot more electric guitar than the original too. The beat has energy and flavor, but it’s still smooth. Three Spirits Brewery has the award-winning Red Moon Rising (alcohol by volume ABV 4.5). It also electrifies the pallet, has a bright definitive flavor, but at the same time it goes down mellow.
The second cut is another Willie Dixon classic: Hoochie Coochie Man. This version is much different from the original. The rhythm of the beat during the verses is more downtempo, almost like reggae, slower, but then it picks up during the chorus and gets stronger. The Three Spirits Brewery craft beer that would go well with this song is called Southern Bliss (ABV 5.0). It is a light-golden ale and also starts off lightly with the first drink, but definitely picks you up after a couple too!
The third cut is called Let’s Spend the Night Together. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Rolling Stones). They named their band after the Muddy Waters song Rolling Stone and did covers of a few of his songs. This track is one of the more upbeat ones on the LP. It also has an original sound that the other cuts don’t really have. For this reason, we recommend Three Spirit’s Ain’t No Hop Steppin’ IPA (ABV 5.0). It’s not like all the other IPAs on the market, very original in flavor. It’s dark-gold in color and uses 5 different types of hops that make a unique flavor. It’s not too bitter like a lot of IPAs tend to be.
The Last cut on the A Side is She’s All Right. This is my favorite cut off the LP, the intro, and break, the Temptations break at the end, it’s all good. So, this song makes me visualize those hazy 90 degree days of driving down rural and dirt gravel back roads with the windows down blasting this in the outskirts of Memphis, along the Mighty Mississippi, past them corn and cotton fields…or hitting corners through the shotgun house neighborhoods, and those old slave shacks back in the sticks, yea….Memphis, shout out! There’s nothing else I can say about this song other than that….except, that I would’ve loved to have had a cold Three Spirits Sweet Memories in my lap (ABV 5.0). It’s their stout. Chocolate/Caramel stout to be exact. More of winter Brew for most, but I’m not like most, I’m a year-round a stout drinker! Much like the cut, the beer I recommended here is my Three Spirit’s Favorite. Can’t go wrong with Sweet Memories.
Side B starts off with Mannish Boy. The most notable Muddy Waters cut to date! The award-winning Agate Have It! (ABV 5.0) is the perfect Three Spirits craft beer to match Mannish Boy’s sound and popularity. It’s an award-winning Northern English Brown Ale. Easy to drink in the summer if you want a dark-full flavored beer, but not as heavy as a stout.
Song 2 on side B is Herbert Harpers Free Press. It’s got a James Brown feel to it. Nice steady riff throughout with Muddy singing his style over it, adding some guitar work here and there to accentuate what the rhythm section is doing. Three Spirits’ Helles Banes is perfect for this song! It’s a Munich Helles. It has a malty and less hoppy flavor, making it light in flavor and drinkability, but it ain’t in the alcohol by volume category (ABV 5.5). Drink responsibly...
The 3rd song on side B is Tom Cat. Very dope! I think it’s one of those cuts that has an excellent balance between funk, psychedelic rock and blues. Three Spirits’ King Rassafassa would go great with this song. It’s Belgian Saison (ABV 6.0) that strikes a good balance between malt, hops and citrus flavors. It's good with brunch fair like waffles, eggs and fresh cut fruit.
The 4th and final song on Side B is called Same Thing. Another Willie Dixon Penned Classic, and his third song credited on the LP. Same Thing is the perfect cut to end this LP with. It’s mellow, back to the roots of the blues, with just enough distortion and reverb to let you know it’s got some new flavor. Three Spirits’ Honey Porter is the right beer for this song. It’s more of an evening beer in my opinion. An end of the night/only at night type of drink. It’s an award-winning Porter (6.0 ABV), with hints of sweetness from the honey and a nice mellow malty flavor that’s characteristic of porters. Easy to drink as well.
That concludes Blues 4 Brews V.1 review of Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud & the perfect beers for each cut from our esteemed sponsor Three Spirits Brewery in Charlotte, NC. Be sure to check them out online and in Charlotte, NC. Add-on. Let me know some of the Blues LPs and songs you dig, history of Blues and Brews, or anything related you’d like to share or ask.
Blues 4 Brews next review: Johnny Guitar Watson’s Listen LP meets Three Spirits Brewery.
Peace
Blues 4 Brews next review: Johnny Guitar Watson’s Listen LP meets Three Spirits Brewery.
Peace