{"id":29513,"date":"2025-06-25T05:30:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T09:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29513"},"modified":"2025-06-02T10:47:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T14:47:58","slug":"album-review-mac-arnold-on-a-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/25\/album-review-mac-arnold-on-a-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Mac Arnold — On a Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Necessity is the mother of invention; Mac Arnold arrived at that realization early in his career. When he was a mere teenager, the Upstate South Carolina native fashioned a guitar out of a gasoline can, a broomstick and wires. He did so when is father prohibited him from buying a proper instrument. Fast forward nearly 70 years \u2013 a time in which Arnold played with James Brown, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann and John Lee Hooker \u2013 and he\u2019s still doing things his own way. A champion of the indie and DIY aesthetics long before those terms were in common use, Arnold has self-released albums featuring him and his long-running band Plate Full O\u2019 Blues.<\/p>\n

Recipient of myriad awards from the Blues Foundation and other institutions, the 82-year-old Arnold has scaled back his activities to some degree, performing a bit less often than in previous years. But he\u2019s still managed to turn out a fine new album, On a Mission<\/i>. Featuring mainstays Austin Brashear and Max Hightower on guitar, the album \u2013 Arnold\u2019s first in quite some time \u2013 serves up eight new original songs.<\/p>\n

With the assured musical firepower of his two guitarists plus the rhythm section of Mike Frost (bass) and drummer Rick Latham, for On a Mission<\/i> Arnold sets aside his trusty gas can guitar, focusing solely on vocals. (Well, not solely: he also produced and arranged the album.)<\/p>\n

The loping \u201cBlues All Over You\u201d opens the eight-song set. A well-worn melody is the backdrop for this easygoing tune, a subtly electrified country blues with some sprightly harmonica (courtesy of Hightower) sparring with Arnold\u2019s laid-back vocal. The two guitarists engage in some understated interplay that adds to the song\u2019s texture without getting in the way of Arnold\u2019s singing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDance the Blues Away\u201d is an uptempo cousin to Howlin\u2019 Wolf\u2019s \u201cWang Dang Doodle\u201d; the guitar work is fleet-fingered, and Arnold sounds like he\u2019s having the time of his life on the tune. The autobiographical \u201cI Am the Blues\u201d chronicles the Chicago chapter of Arnold\u2019s rich musical history. A romantic melody suits the title of \u201cLove Story,\u201d a model of subtlety and restrained passion. The band demonstrates its understanding of the fact that the quiet spaces between the notes are every bit as important as the notes themselves.<\/p>\n

The title track is another showcase for supremely melodic and appealing lead guitar work; as with the album\u2019s other tracks, Brashier and Hightower eschew distortion in favor of cleanly delivered acoustic-sounding electric guitar runs. Arnold\u2019s self-referential lyric is in line with his personal journey and extensive philanthropic work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlider\u201d sounds a good bit like The Stray Cats\u2019 \u201cStray Cat Strut,\u201d but so too do countless other songs. With a campfire vibe heavy on acoustic guitar chording, harmonica and percussive brush-strokes, the tune doubles down on the overall warm and modest character of On a Mission<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The initial quietude of \u201cSwamps of Louisiana\u201d gives way to a delightful wordless moan from Mac Arnold. Against the backdrop of a catchy melody, that vocalization serves as the song\u2019s chorus, and listeners may be moved to moan right along with the bluesman. The saucy \u201cWon\u2019t Tell the Truth\u201d recasts a popular blues trope (by way of Ray Charles) into a fanciful first-person musical tale. It\u2019s a solid way to wrap up an enjoyable and lovingly-created album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Necessity is the mother of invention; Mac Arnold arrived at that realization early in his career. When he was a mere teenager, the Upstate South Carolina native fashioned a guitar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[3214],"class_list":["post-29513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-mac-arnold","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29515,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29513\/revisions\/29515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}