Artist:     Reverend Freakchild

Album:     Dial It In

Label:     Treated and Released Records

Release Date:     4.1.2018

89

BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

Reverend Freakchild barrels his way through a number of related genres, but who wouldn’t, with the firepower he has gathered on this album? Guys who’ve recorded with Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Paul Butterfield, G Love, BB King, Levon Helm, Al Green and Gregg Allman (for starters) join in.

Note that the Reverend’s publishing company is Citizen of the Universe, so you know narrow-minded is not on a guy named “Freakchild’s” table. Geez Louise, the opening track is “Opus Earth,” a largely instrumental, seriously psychedelic and highly mesmerizing piece with just the right amount of sonorous talking vocals which amount to—I wish I could make it sound appealing, because it is—a grunted prayer. Then the CD gets a little more normal.

A swampy blues number replete with wailing harp, “Personal Jesus (on the Mainline)” may not be quite enough to raise the dead, but it will definitely heal most illnesses. That song dials it up a little more than other blues tunes on the album, but they all get the body and soul moving—and smiling, since there’s a fair dose of humor in the songs, plus a spiritual bent, whether spiritual/gospel or spiritual/psychedelic.

The longest song on the album, Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” deserves special attention for the Reverend’s risk-taking. Blaringly horn-rich yet true to Dylan’s spoken-word delivery in most respects, this cover is completely out of the box and, like most good covers, make you listen closely to the song. The introduction of Jay Collins’ wailing saxes and Chris Parker’s cymbal-rich drum track really add a welcome dimension. The rich reward: renewed meaning from words which have become over-familiar. That cut is followed by a traditional song with resonator and backing vocals by Lisa Marie, on Blind Willie Johnson’s “Soul of a Man,” quite a shift.

Bookending the album with “Opus Space,” another psychedelic blues groove, Freakchild’s found a perfect closer for an album which embraces both Heaven and Earth equally.

—Suzanne Cadgène