One Night In America

1	Trail of Tears 4:21
2	Cold Grey Light of Dawn 2:58
3	Blues Overtook Me 4:30
4	In a Town This Size 3:42
5	Walking Alone 4:48
6	Rank Strangers to Me 4:38
7	One Time One Night 4:46
8	In Your Darkest Hour 4:32
9	Big River 5:22
10	Ain't It Time? 4:22
11	I'll Meet You Over There 2:54
12	Ain't That Lovin' You Baby 2:56

Barnes & Noble

Harmonica player, singer, and songwriter Charlie Musselwhite reaches back to his childhood in Memphis for One Night in America. It was an era when country, blues, and rhythm and blues blended seamlessly into the aural landscape of the American South, and in Musselwhite’s musical palette they all blend together as naturally as the colors in a sunset on the Mississippi River. He paints R&B singer/songwriter Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Cold Grey Light of Dawn” as a sad country ballad. Johnny Cash’s “Big River” is a roaring, Americana-tinged blues with Musselwhite’s harmonica wailing next to G. E. Smith’s fired-up guitar. Country singer Kelly Willis joins in on vocals for the hymnlike “Rank Strangers to Me,” and guitarist Robben Ford is featured on several cuts, including a rousing version of Jimmy Reed’s “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby.” One Night in America is not Musslewhite’s first foray outside of the strictly defined blues genre, but as Americana fans have come to understand, the line between roots genres is best when blurred or nonexistent. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

Charlie Musselwhite continues his prolific four-decade career jumping over to Telarc for his first album of the millennium after spending the '90s recording for Alligator and Virgin. A recap of his formative Memphis roots, Musselwhite receives substantial assistance from guests Robben Ford on guitar (Musselwhite provided Ford with his first gigs when the guitarist was in his late teens), Texas vocalist Kelly Willis, and guitarist/mandolin player Marty Stuart; the last two bring a rootsy, laid back country feel to the album that effectively fuses the swampy C&W, R&B, and blues of Memphis into a cohesive statement. Musselwhite blows unamplified harp on every track, but it's his weathered, understated vocals that infuse these songs with down-home charm. Covers from Jimmy Reed, Los Lobos (the album takes its title from their "One Time One Night"), Ivory Joe Hunter, and Kieran Kane flow beautifully into each other as the artist masterfully blurs the lines between genres. He tears into Johnny Cash's "Big River" like it was a Chicago blues classic and retells his own childhood in the affecting original "Blues Overtook Me." He and producer Randy Labbe generate a Creedence-styled swamp vibe on the opening "Trail of Tears," with both Willis and Christine Ohlman chiming in on gripping backing vocals that set the atmosphere. But the album resonates most effectively on the sparsest tracks. "Ain't It Time" exudes a resigned, almost gospel feel in its achingly slow groove, and "In Your Darkest Hour," another Musselwhite original, shimmers with just harp and T-Bone Wolk's spooky walking bass creating a foggy mood that envelopes the listener. Not just a fresh start at a new label, this album is a sentimental and sincere recap of Musselwhite's influences and a stirring listen throughout. Hal Horowitz

Billboard

[Musselwhite] returns conceptually to his Memphis roots on his new album..."Big River " reflects the primacy in Memphis of its Mississippi subject matter, while Jimmy Reed's "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" is a nod to his Memphis jukebox memories.