Roy Dunn – Know’d Them All (Trix)

Remarkable in his frank unremarkableness, Roy Dunn is my kind of bluesman. His life traces familiar arteries of itinerant gospel and harmony group singing pocked by derailments due to tragedy. The most recent in relation to these early 70s sessions was a car wreck that killed his infant child and landed him and his wife in the hospital with a profusion of broken bones for months. His chosen repertoire here is derivative, but erudite, learned mostly from old phonograph records. This sole Trix offering (as far as I know his sum total of recordings) contains reworkings of tunes by Tampa Red (“Stranger’s Blues”), Jim Jackson (“Move to Kansas City”) and DeFord Bailey (“Don’t Tear My Clothes”). His plectrum and finger-picking approaches are respectably spry, but rarely stray from rote pre-existing forms. Each song receives the stamp of a personal watermark- an inserted verse here, a deft complementary riff there. Voice and inflection-wise he reminds me a bit of Brownie McGhee, sharing the same dry warmth and laconic locution that can segue from a slow drawl to an emphatic whoop over the span of a verse. Taped by Trix kingpin Pete Lowry (a guy whose A&R acumen mirrored Testament’s Pete Welding) the tracks carry crisp fidelity with Dunn exquisitely miked and in a congenial and crafty mood. Some nifty string percussion effects spice up “Further on Down the Line” and some tart harp work sounding a bit like rice paper and comb adds flavor to the aforementioned Bailey song. “Everything I Get a Hold To” finds Dunn decrying his diminutive stature and how it so often leads to his susceptibility to bullying while “Pearl Harbor Blues” constitutes his stab at a topical blues. “Mr. Charlie” offers a clever extended meditation on the ability of song to transcend disability. The shot on the cover typifies the overarching arcadian ambiance of the music. Just Roy and his guitar(s) sitting porch side and playing for himself and whatever passerby might stroll past.