Downhome Sophisticate is an album by the American blues musician Corey Harris, released in 2002.
The album peaked at No. 4 on "Billboard"'s Blues Albums chart. Harris promoted the album by touring with his band, 5X5.
Production.
The album was produced by Harris and Jamal Millner. Millner also played guitar on "Downhome Sophisticate". Henry Butler played piano on "Black Maria".
Critical reception.
Robert Christgau noted that the "rock-type poetry ... makes like social conditions are as real as love and dreams." "The Washington Post" stated that "on 'Santoro', which concerns social injustice and racial profiling, Harris vents his frustration in a voice that rises just above a whisper to ask: 'So why you figure they be so jumpy on the trigger. So quick like that, to assassinate black?'"
"Bass Player" called the album "a revelation—a nasty, Old School blues album with tinges of boogie-woogie, African soul, hip-hop, blazing yet sensitive slide guitar, and pristine production." "The Commercial Appeal" thought that the album "shows that one can embrace roots and still be forward looking ... Rarely has traditional sounded more modern." The "Ottawa Citizen" opined that "this definitely isn't for your 12-bar, hard-core crowd, but for those who're a little more interested in where the blues and grown-up R&amp;B might be headed in the not-to-distant future."
AllMusic wrote that "it's an easy leap for Harris from folklore to urgent urban settings; his depiction of a police car as a fearsome, prowling Biblical beast makes 'Santoro' especially disturbing."
References.
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