Stone Cold Ohio

by Little Axe

Overview

Little Axe is guitarist and singer Skip McDonald, but it's also much more than that. It is, in practice, a virtual reunion of the Sugarhill Gang -- the rhythm section responsible for the grooves underlying such paleo-hip-hop classics as "Rapper's Delight" and "White Lines" -- and therefore also a virtual reunion of Tackhead, the pioneering avant funk outfit that brought the Sugarhill Gang together with British producer Adrian Sherwood and vocalists Gary Clail and Bernard Fowler. In the Little Axe context, though, the focus is squarely on McDonald and on his overriding passion: vintage blues. Imagine a Delta blues aesthetic (spare, rural, and stark), and then imagine it thickened with additional instrumental layers and twisted with dubwise atmospherics, and you'll have some idea what to expect -- sort of like a posthumous collaboration between Howlin' Wolf and African Head Charge. The second Little Axe album features mostly McDonald originals, along with some well-chosen covers from the likes of Allen Toussaint, Skip James, and former Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun. But even his originals owe a deep debt to the work of his forefathers -- "If I Had My Way," for example, takes its whole chorus from the gospel classic "Samson and Delilah." Stone Cold Ohio is a real rarity: an album that can't be mistaken for anything other than blues, but that sounds nothing like any blues album you've ever heard. ~ Rick Anderson

Product Details

Release Date:	09/21/2018
Label:	Echo Beach
UPC:	4015698019537

Tracks

1. If I Had My Way
2. Same People
3. Rockin' Shoes
4. Victims
5. Let Me Ride
6. Trouble in Mind
7. Hard Times
8. Almighty

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Little Axe   Primary Artist
Paget King   Keyboards
Madeleine Edgehill   Choir/Chorus,Vocals (Background)
Doug Wimbish   Guitar (Bass),Bass
Will Calhoun   Drums,Percussion
Skip McDonald   Guitar,Vocals
Denise Sherwood   Choir/Chorus,Vocals (Background)
Carlton Ogilvie   Choir/Chorus,Vocals (Background)
Valerie Skeete   Choir/Chorus

Technical Credits

York Tillyer   Photography
Eric Renwart   Engineer
Jimmy Dobson   Engineer
Doug Wimbish   Engineer
Nick Coplowe   Mixing,Engineer,Drum Programming
Adrian Sherwood   Producer
Will Calhoun   Composer
Skip McDonald   Producer
Allen Toussaint   Composer
Skip James   Composer
Axel Hirn   Engineer
Keith LeBlanc   Drum Programming
Kevin Metcalfe   Mastering
Marc Bessant   Design,Photography