| Downhome Sophisticate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2002 | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Label | Rounder [1] | |||
| Producer | Corey Harris, Jamal Millner | |||
| Corey Harris chronology | ||||
| ||||
Downhome Sophisticate is an album by the American blues musician Corey Harris, released in 2002. [2] [3]
The album peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's Blues Albums chart. [4] Harris promoted the album by touring with his band, 5X5. [5]
The album was produced by Harris and Jamal Millner. [6] Millner also played guitar on Downhome Sophisticate. [7] Henry Butler played piano on "Black Maria". [8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Robert Christgau | A− [10] |
| Ottawa Citizen | [11] |
| (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [12] |
Robert Christgau noted that the "rock-type poetry ... makes like social conditions are as real as love and dreams." [10] 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?'" [13]
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." [14] The Commercial Appeal thought that the album "shows that one can embrace roots and still be forward looking ... Rarely has traditional sounded more modern." [15] 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&B might be headed in the not-to-distant future." [11]
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." [9]
