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The Blues is about pain and the conquest of pain. Richard Smerin obviously suffered with the way many of his contemporaries were treating his beloved Blues standards. That was the pain. The conquest is his CD, "Q. - M.U.D.".
Some of the tracks are songs by Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Rod Dawes, Bob Dylan and Jesse Fuller, which Smerin thinks have been most badly mistreated. The rest are songs with a personal meaning for the London-born guitarist.
Smerin, who is practically unknown in Germany, has been playing guitar since he was seven. He has accompanied B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Bobby 'Blue' Bland. He has a relaxed fingerpicking style, influenced by the Mississippi and Memphis traditions, with no superfluous solos and embellishments. The accent is on the song itself.
Singing is often the weak point of European Blues performers. Smerin has a voice. A warm voice, somewhat irregular in the higher reaches, that always stays close to the spoken word. A voice that is wonderfully suited to his fluent fingerpicking. You can feel Smerin's love for these songs, which all have a story to tell. He often gives them a personal twist. The abrupt ending to his version of "Me An' T' Chauffeur", which was often sung by Jo Ann Kelly, is a reminder of the singer's tragic early death.
Whether Smerin is singing the "San Francisco Bay Blues" or calling on the wind to "Blow Wind Blow", his rendering is always sensitive and true to the original, yet stands on its own.
There are subtle links between the songs. Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell" precedes "Delia" - McTell's own arrangement. The cover notes give a lot of background. The songs were recorded in Berlin in less than six hours. "The result is not perfect," Smerin writes, "but then, neither am I."
Smerin will be performing along with Blues guitarist Klaus Brandl at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the Kuturforum Schlachthof.
EBERHARD GRONAU
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