T-Model Ford - Pee Wee Get My Gun (Fat Possum)

A bit of a relic from Fat Possum’s not-so-distant past, the label has since wisely moved on to stewarding more reliable and lucrative wards like Dinosaur Jr. and the Heartless Bastards. Back in the Nineties though, they still banked their wildly fluctuating fortunes on the blues and a specially cultivated branch of that variegated vine that T-Model Ford could easily have been the poster boy for had R.L. Burnside not beat him to the post. Ford always struck me as the most pragmatic and self-aware among the Fat Possum stable. He knew his persona as an obdurate bad ass was mostly a sham but he took to it anyway and had a helluva time propagating it. This record, his debut at the ripe old age of 75, revels in the sort of boasting and vilifying that’s been parcel to the idiom since its inception. It certainly helps to have the lyrics coupled to snarling over-amplified guitars and stomping metronomic snare beats, all filtered through brittle and bracing back porch production. Veteran bluesman Frank Frost adds Farfisa on a couple cuts and the story goes that he and Ford almost came to blows on several occasions during the session; the former man aggravated by the latter’s blatant disregard for quality control. “Cut You Loose” predictably recounts love gone past the shelf date while “Turkey and the Rabbit” burns with pure gin and distortion-soaked boogie. “Nobody Gets Me Down” is instant theme song material with Ford growling: “I been shot, and I been cut, nobody gets me down.” Several songs meander well past their welcome and calling Ford’s rheumatic wheeze an acquired taste is probably too kind, but damn if he doesn’t consistently deliver a good time. The cover and title win points too, demonstrating conclusively that even the local youth aren’t beyond the reach of Ford’s corrupting influence.