Hudspeth & Taylor

Folie A Deux

Self-released

In the vein of those great acoustic blues records from the ‘60s and ‘70s on the Vanguard, Arhoolie, and Shanachie labels and such, come the Kansas City duo of guitarist Brandon Hudspeth and vocalist/percussionist Jaisson Taylor for their debut, Folie A Deux. That term, according to medical terminology is a shared psychosis or a group hallucination. Maybe you translated “duo” from “Deux.” In any case, the music is not hallucinatory but at times it can be transfixing. The two have managed to retain the old school feel but keep it fresh too by adding some classic rock and soul elements to the mix.  Because Taylor uses a type of African drum, there’s a world element too.

While the duo began in 2015 with a heavy electric Hill Country sound, they evolved into an acoustic format. Apparently, it just kind of happened that way.  Twelve of these thirteen tunes are originals form the pen of each partner  or in collaboration. Sure, you’ll recognize many of the riffs and chord structures – this is blues after all. They do take credit for “Candy Man” but Hudspeth’s guitar parts and portions of the lyrics clearly are inspired by Mississippi John Hurt’s song of the same name.

Hudspeth handles all the guitars while Taylor’s approach is rather interesting. He deploys an array of percussion from cajon to washboard, adding a different kind of texture to the sound. Unlike most acoustic blues duos, the harmonica is absent from their arsenal.  Hudspeth says, “The way we ended up using different styles and keeping it acoustic at the same time just seemed to happen naturally. There’s definitely some modern tendencies to it, and I think that’s important. All the different percussion is one of things that lent itself to being all-acoustic. Jaisson’s played all those things from the beginning and our sound has just naturally evolved. There’s one thing replacing something else every time we play, its ever changing. The cajon was always there, that’s where it all started.”

Taylor says, “There’s a lot of cajon on this record. Cajon literally means box. It’s a pretty ubiquitous form of African drum that got adapted from the African diaspora into Cuban music and a lot of other cultures.” Taylor also has a four-octave voice and that too adds a different element to the proceedings as he sings differently on some of the tunes. He adds, “I like to think about the lyric and color it from different points in my voice. I do a lot of my own harmonies and try to get different characters with things like the bass parts and falsetto, even get a feminine tone to avoid repetition. A lot of it comes from the interplay of what Brandon’s doing on the guitar.”

The moods are varied too. A little humor never hurts. They don’t take themselves too seriously as evidence by songs like “Big Fat Hairy Lie.” “Sometimes You Act Crazy,” and “Silly Billy” yet they can be downright haunting and hypnotic too as in “I Know It’s Gonna Rain Again.”

Hudspeth and Taylor have a palpable chemistry that shines through on this enjoyable set of tunes.

• Jim Hynes