Blood Moon

When I first heard (and reviewed in these pages) Tim “Too Slim” Langford and the Taildraggers in 1989 at LaSalle’s, he and his quartet focused mostly on the blues; ditto their appearance at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. pub four years later. So, the ex-Spokane-now-Nashville-based guitarist and his trio (Jeff Fowlkes, drums/vocals; Robert Kearns, bass/vocals) took me completely by surprise on Blood Moon with the opening track, “Evil Mind,” a blues-rock number which features Slim’s wah-wah guitar and contrasts unfavorably (to me, anyway) with all the slide guitar he played back then. However, he comes back to the blues on the title track, a slow number with an ominous beat and lyrics (“There’s a blood moon rising … Bad times behind you/Don’t you ever look back.”). Among the 10 originals, the moody “My Body” deals with a wish to be cremated (“Burn my body, set my ashes free”); not the cheeriest of themes, but life returns big time on the penultimate track, the very lively “Good Guys Win.” Something for everybody!