White African

1	My Soul's in Louisiana 3:35
2	Resurrection Blues 5:59
3	Momma Don't You Do It 2:24
4	3 Days and 3 Nights 4:21
5	Round and Round 1:47
6	Stick on You 3:30
7	Rain So Hard 3:52
8	Lost My Horse 3:10
9	Saint Martha Blues 4:15
10	Ain't No Cowgirl 2:14
11	Hungry People 5:01

Barnes & Noble

Though he was born in Chicago, Otis Taylor grew up in Colorado, and the soul of a high plains drifter rides through the lonesome blues on his enigmatically titled White African. A songwriter, singer, guitarist, harpist, and mandolin and banjo player, Taylor integrates the environment into his tales of injustice, obsessive love, lynching, and the disenfranchised, reminding us what little control many folks have over their lives.. The lyrics to these dark, topical tales are often simple, with repeated laments as the refrains. The playing achieves a sense of drama through leanness. White African brings to mind the blues of artists like Alvin Youngblood Hart, Guy Davis, and Corey Harris, and like these other young blues lions, Taylor is calling from the wilderness of modern times. But his perspective is as fresh and as bleak as the peaks of the Rockies in winter. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

Otis Taylor has a knack for interesting titles; Blue-Eyed Monster and When Negros Walked the Earth are among the CDs that the Denver bluesman recorded before White African. Taylor also has a knack for very dark and sobering themes -- this 2001 release, in fact, is full of them. On White African, Taylor's subject matter ranges from lynching in the Deep South ("Saint Martha Blues") to homelessness ("Hungry People") to being unable to afford health care for a sick, dying child ("3 Days and 3 Nights"). And Taylor doesn't try to sugarcoat his often disturbing lyrics with happy melodies. Greatly influenced by John Lee Hooker, the very soulful Taylor often favors moody, dusky, haunting grooves. So White African is as dark musically as it is lyrically. Over the years, dark humor has played a major role in the blues -- like country and hip-hop artists, bluesmen are known for finding a variety of humorous, clever ways to tell you how cruel and punishing life can be. But White African isn't dark humored; it's simply dark. This CD is also incredibly compelling, and it is enthusiastically recommended to those who don't expect lighthearted escapism from all of their music. Alex Henderson