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Past sounds have never sounded so thoroughly born of the present as they do on Jerron Paxton’s raw and wonderful ‘Things Done Changed’…a finely crafted album for today made oh so skilfully with the tools of yesterday.
For this brand-new release on the Smithsonian Folkways label, multi-instrumentalist and real-life sourcing story-in-song purveyor Jerron Paxton is presenting his first collection made up entirely of all-new, original material. This is not just extraordinary because, from beginning to end, the tracks are of uniformly high quality, but also because they sound impossibly like tunes that have been sitting around gathering dust for a hundred years or more. It is one thing to adopt a vintage style or form, it is a whole other ball game if an artist brings genuinely original alongside stimulating ideas to the table, and that is exactly what is happening here. Early acoustic blues is the backbone to the sound, although echoes of folk and ragtime, in particular, are never too far from view. Perhaps it is Jerron’s honest approach that leads to the unquestionable authenticity of this end product, as the man himself says, “I write and sing about the culture I come from; it seems a bit neglected.” Originally from South Central Los Angeles, Paxton would later find receptive audiences after relocating to New York City, drawing favourable comparisons to Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and Mississippi John Hurt, and yet you can clearly hear he is not overly similar to any of these; this is an artist who has absolutely found his own voice.
Things Done Changed, the title track and opener, sets the scene with Jerron Paxton’s sharp and precise acoustic picking and that weathered voice drawing on how “things done changed between you and me, seems like time ain’t be like it used to be.” Instantly, I get an understanding of just why the blues is such a timeless musical form; the ache in that vocal and the playing is all too real as our narrator tells of a circumstance that occurs every day between human beings. Relationships start, relationships end, people hurt each other, some get left behind while others break hearts when their feelings fade for pastures new. People change as connections are lost and found; this is universal and is happening here in front of our eyes and ears. Baby Days Blues leads with a scintillating harmonica as the front-sounding instrument before Jerron laments how he wishes he could return to more carefree times now long gone. It’s All Over Now may hint with its title at a piece derived from a multitude of blues standards already in existence, but this is very much a new seed and one that, with its frenetic rhythmic bluesy riffing and a hook line leaning towards the classic, a fresh and vital burst of new musical excitement.
Little Zydeco is a swampy, stomping instrumental interlude with breathless harmonica action aplenty. By contrast, So Much Weed is appropriately laid back, hazily floating and chilled; sample lyric, “people ask if I get nervous when I fly, can’t get nervous I’m already sky high from so much weed.” This sense of disorientation continues in the scuzzy pensiveness purveyed during What’s Gonna Become Of Me, in which the playing is brilliantly wired, sounding as if backed into a corner and desperate to punch its way back out. Mississippi Bottom may well follow the classic 12-bar template but still manages to sound like a line is being drawn between the 1920s and the 2020s before on Out In This World, Jerron finds himself anchorless and far from solid ground, a lost soul taking some small comfort in his outsider status. Again, the guitar work is rich with melodic twists and turns, a rolling thrill on the descending riffing that propels the next tune, All And All Blues. Brown Bear Blues sees Jerron in self-aggrandising mode, he “got what it takes that will make you moan and groan.” Oxtail Blues brings some honky-tonk piano to the mix before closing tune, Tombstone Disposition, is typically preoccupied with end times, emphasising many a blues trope with its references to not minding dying after unspecified mistreatment.
Nevertheless, this fatalism is shot through, as everything is on this raw and wonderful record, with a fire in its belly and grit between its teeth. In so many ways, past sounds have never sounded so thoroughly born of the present. Jerron Paxton is undoubtedly in a league of his own with this; Things Done Changed is a finely crafted album for today made oh so skilfully with the tools of yesterday.
Things Done Changed (18th October 2024) Smithsonian Folkways
Order Things Done Changed: https://orcd.co/jerron-paxton
Watch Jerron Paxton Live at the 2023 Brooklyn Folk Festival
