Deranged Covers

Big Daddy 'O' is a sweet singing hard driving Acoustic Blues Artist from the Louisiana Mississippi Delta. His interpretations of songs win him new fans where ever he is heard. Whether it's solo guitar and voice or fronting his kicking blues band, Big Daddy 'O''s big baritone voice shines true. Review from Blues Matters BIG DADDY 'O' Deranged Covers That's How Strong My Love Is Rabadash 'Deranged Covers' is a strange title for a Blues album, considering that the whole tradition is based on recycling and reworking. The 'deranged' part of the title is the clue, as Big Daddy 'O' (Owen Tuft) has reworked his raw material to produce a strikingly varied and yet assuredly authentic sounding album. The range of styles on display is remarkable, and casts Big Daddy 'O' as a 'renaissance man' of Taj Mahal proportions, an eclecticism which makes for a genuinely refreshing listen. The instrumentation, including violin, mandolin, trumpet, B-3 organ etc., contributes to the whole 'deranging' process. Chester 'Howlin' Wolf' Burnett's 'Built For Comfort', for instance, sounds radically different to the original, which is exactly the approach any contemporary interpreter of the Blues canon should take. 'That's How Strong My Love Is' is a much more intimate, traditionalist album of cosy acoustic Blues. Owen's homely baritone voice is backed on most tracks by a pared-down set-up of acoustic guitar and one or two other instruments, including a wonderfully lyrical accordion on the title track, and effortlessly debonair jazz trumpet stylings on 'I Don't Drink Much'. Of the two albums, I marginally prefer 'That's How Strong My Love Is' on the basis that Big Daddy O's heart is clearly in laid-back, down-home country Blues, of which the album is a superlative slice. Ian Kingsbury.