Album Reviews

God Don’t Never Change in honor of Blind Willie Johnson

God Don’t Never Change is a tribute album for the great blues howler and gospel progenitor Blind Willie Johnson, and also contributions from Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams and more impressing musicians. The album is produced by Jeffrey Gaskill, and it was released on February 26, by Alligator Records.

This compilation does a great job of capturing the spirit of the originals, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t listened the originals, you will still fall in love in this compilation. The music is infectious, the musicians passionate, and the recording first rate.

The artists straddle musical genres with significantly different styles, yet somehow the whole album works. Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams each perform two songs, the rest of the artists, Cowboy Junkies, Sinead O’Connor, Maria McKee, Luther DIckinson, Blind Boys of Alabama, Ricki Lee Jones and Derek Trucks/Susan Tedeschi just perform one. Luther Dickinson is the perfect choice to bring a fife and drum arrangement to “Bye and Bye I’m Going to see the King” and it’s always a treat to hear Maria McKee. Sinéad O’Connor and Relish offer an emotionally resonant, Celtic take on the Delta gospel-blues that rocks with “Trouble Will Soon Be Over.”

God Don’t Never Change is not necessarily about unique interpretations of Johnson’s work, but his influence on these specific artists. Blind Willie Johnson deserves this tribute album, because he gave us so much more.

Milena Staniskovska

March 19th, 2016

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