| Homemade | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1999 | |||
| Genre | Blues, Piedmont blues | |||
| Label | Alligator | |||
| Producer | Joe Wilson | |||
| Cephas & Wiggins chronology | ||||
| ||||
Homemade is an album by the American musical duo Cephas & Wiggins, released in 1999. [1] [2] It was their second album for Alligator Records. [3] The duo supported the album with a North American tour. [4] Homemade was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award for best "Traditional Blues Album". [5]
The album was produced by Joe Wilson, who also cowrote a couple of the songs. [6] Cephas helped write eight of the songs; Wiggins worked on one. [7] Wiggins considered the selections to be enlivening rather than sad or depressing. [8] The album opens and closes with covers of Blind Boy Fuller tunes. [9] "Slow Blues" is a version of the instrumental Reverend Gary Davis song. [10] Two originals, "Jelly Roll" and "Meeting the Mule", explore the differences between life, and women, in the metropolitan North and country South. [6] "I Was Determined" is an autobiographical song about wanting to play the blues after hearing neighbors singing blues standards. [11]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [12] |
| The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | [13] |
| Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | [14] |
| The Star Democrat | 6/10 [15] |
| The Sunday Age |  [10] |
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that "Cephas plays in ragtime-like guitar rhythms, with Wiggins's airy harp a perfect complement... Cephas's vocals are fittingly light, even though the blues are still the blues." [14] The Sunday Age said that Cephas "succeeds where few have dared, mimicking Skip James's keening vocals and unusual tuning on 'Illinois'." [10] The Toronto Star deemed the album "accessible rural dance music with low-key engaging grooves." [16] The Washington Post determined that Wiggins and Cephas weave "voice and guitar together so seamlessly that one mind seems to govern both mouths and all four arms." [6] The Star Democrat considered the album forgettable and an example of "generic" blues. [15]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Mamie" | |
| 2. | "Meeting the Mule" | |
| 3. | "Spider Woman" | |
| 4. | "Trouble in Mind" | |
| 5. | "Jelly Roll" | |
| 6. | "Walking Mama" | |
| 7. | "A Lot of Them Blues" | |
| 8. | "Illinois Blues" | |
| 9. | "I Was Determined" | |
| 10. | "Sounds of the Blues" | |
| 11. | "Worried Life Blues" | |
| 12. | "Me and My Chauffeur" | |
| 13. | "Slow Blues" | |
| 14. | "Leaving Blues" | |
| 15. | "Pigmeat" |
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