Moreland & Arbuckle - Flood (2010)

The Wichita, Kansas-based trio of vocalist/harpist Dustin Arbuckle, guitarist Aaron Moreland, and drummer Brad Horner kicked up a storm with the 2008 release of their 1861 album for Northern Blues Music. Named for the year that their home state joined the union, the album's raw, energetic mix of blues, roots-rock, and folk influences made ears snap to attention and announced that there was a new, talented group of players on the scene.

Moreland & Arbuckle further honed their blues credentials when the band’s namesakes backed Mississippi blues legend T-Model Ford on his recent album The Ladies Man. The experience must have inspired the guys, 'cause there’s more than a little Delta mud and grit to be found in the grooves of Flood, the band's fourth album, and their first for Telarc Records.

Moreland & Arbuckle's Flood

The band cranks up the amps from the very beginning on Flood, manhandling an inspired cover of Little Walter's classic "Hate to See You Go." While Arbuckle sings and blows his little heart out on the harmonica he wields like a samurai sword, drummer Brad Horner kicks it old school, his steady rhythms creating a jackhammer beat on top of which guitarist Moreland weaves his mesmerizing, Mississippi Hill Country styled hypno-drone. The result is the kind of juke-joint holler that Mr. Burnside would have been happy to write home about.

Not that these guys are one-and-done, nosirree, 'cause the sonic overkill that they lay on the traditional folk-blues romp "Legend of John Henry" is nothing short of the sort of liver-quivering fun that results in first degree burns. Moreland's damaged riffs threaten to absolutely catch fire, while Arbuckle's soaring harp solos are fueled by sweat and smoke. Recorded live in some backwater drive, the song builds to a reckless crescendo before spiraling completely out of control and, ultimately, leaves the audience cheering as they dance horizontally like a school of perch on the floor of your fishing boat.

Before The Flood

While "Before The Flood," from whence one might think the album takes its name, is a delightfully vague 76-second instrumental interlude with wacked out guitars and swirling rhythms, the tragic story-song "18 Counties" is the true heart and soul of Flood. Amidst a suffocating tsunami of circular guitar riffs and blasted drumbeats, Arbuckle sings the tale of people caught up in a natural disaster beyond their ken. Using Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere" as inspiration, Arbuckle's mournful vocals and crying harpwork relate the lyrical protagonist's soul-crushing story. In a moment of weakness, the desperate man says "I'd sell my soul for a spot that's high and dry" as Moreland's powerful fretwork channels Son House in his prime.

The single best thing about Flood, however, is the band's ability to grab just about any style of blues music, apply some serious chops, and rock the house with it. Whereas a lot of modern-day rock bands have trouble re-creating their own sound consistently, Moreland & Arbuckle are talented students of the blues, and thus capable of pulling off whatever they attempt. For instance, bringing in a guest pianist to pound the keys, "Don’t Wake Me" is the sort of Chicago blues-styled roadhouse jam that one might expect to hear in a Southeast Texas honky-tonk, while "Can't Leave Well Enough Alone" is an acoustic, Piedmont-flavored country blues with a bit of twang and a whole lot of soul.

Bound & Determined

The wonderful, Western-styled "Bound and Determined" stomps proudly on that jagged line between the blues and hillbilly music, a tragic story-song with wickedly somber vocals, a rambling rhythm, and the tragic ending we all expected, but delight in nonetheless. "In the Morning I'll Be Gone" is a blistering swamp-rocker with serpentine slide-guitar that strikes repeatedly above the entrancing rhythms, the blazing harmonica used here as a sort of second guitar to create a truly otherworldly vibe that sounds like getting lost in the woods on a dark, rainy night. Yup, it's just that nasty!

The soulful "Red Moon Rising" is another mid-tempo country-blues story-song that showcases some elegant acoustic six-string pickin' and twangy, muted harp that evokes memories of Sonny Boy and Furry Lewis. An alternate "banjo version" of a previous cut, "Can't Get Clear," is actually superior to the original, creating a menacing Delta ambiance with Moreland's jarring, jangling banjo strum and Arbuckle's plaintive, misery-drenched vocals. When the harp starts to blow, it's actually a relief, the instrument's warm tones providing an anchor to humanity that is threatened by the emotion of the broken-edged banjo notes.

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Moreland & Arbuckle represent a breath of fresh air, blowing at hurricane-force across the musty traditionalism of the blues-rock genre. Using a classic power trio format, they extend beyond the formats limitations, ditching a bass guitar in favor of Arbuckle's masterful harp, in itself a second lead instrument. The band easily welds the molten blues-rock of Led Zeppelin and Cream with the Delta spirit of Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson; throw in a little Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside and this witch's brew is ready to pop.

Although they sound like a lot of other people, Moreland & Arbuckle sound like nobody so much as themselves. As illustrated by Flood, their music is referential without being derivative, original in its construction but almost avant-garde in its audacity. The result is an invigorating and energetic collection of songs that will appeal to a younger generation of music fans looking for the sincerity and authenticity that Moreland & Arbuckle bring by the truckload, while still managing to entertain us greybeard geezers that cut our teeth on Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters. It's a tightrope walk, to be sure, and one that Flood manages deceptively easily. (Telarc Records, released February 23, 2010)

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