A Preaching Blues Product

The gruesome bluesome twosome!

The 44s are a small band with a big sound. This fiery guitar and drums blues outfit combine old time delta blues with loops and layers, psychedelic leanings and punk rock flavours. The Reverend Elijah Green and Mr Paul are two Leicester musicians who have a mission to play the kind of delta blues you can hear if you go to the Mississippi delta today.  The line up of the Reverend on slide guitar and Mr Paul on jungle drums play classics from 'way back then' artists like Son House, as well as their country and punk-blues hero the late RL Burnside. The 44s are building up a following with the blues crowd wherever they go, but also have many fans in  London's growing sleaze-junk-trash-rockabilly circus.

The 44s formed in 2005 when all the members of a previous band left in a hurry. Bands like the White Stripes and the Black Keys had gained a following with just guitar and drums, and the Rev and Mr P knew that the time was right to return to their blues roots. But rather than look to the standard blues most people think of these days, Green and Paul turned to the blues singers who are still playing in the Mississippi bars and juke joints today.

"I started out playing punk rock. But I've always been a fan of guys like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters" says the Reverend. "I didn't go for Eric Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughan though. Those guys are good musicians, but they leave me cold. The early guys had some exciting ingredient that was missing on standard blues records, something that cut right through to my 1980s punk/stones brain." 

In the late 90s Green came across Fat Possum Records, a small Mississippi label dedicated to recording the last surviving delta blues artists. "These old Fat Possum geezers play every weekend in 21st century Mississippi", continues Green: "it was like when things come into sharp focus - I found exactly what I love about blues. I knew exactly what the missing ingredient was". And Green and Paul weren't the only musicians to fall for this dark side of the blues - the John Spencer Blues Explosion, the White Stripes and the Black Keys all play up their associations with early blues, and all have some direct contact with Fat Possum.

Sadly, Fat Possum elder statesmen Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside are dead. But a highlight of the early 44s shows was travelling with Kenny Brown, 20 years guitarist at the side of RL Burnside. Rev. Green again: "Kenny was amazing, drinking Jack Daniels and pouring out riffs. He was a real quiet guy, but he had all these stories about touring with RL in France, about playing with Keith Richards and Tom Waits. The last show was the big night at the Spitz festival of blues in London. And then Kenny invited us over to the Mississippi North Hills festival they have on his farm. I was in heaven. Sittin' down."

But that was just the start. The word on the Forty Fours is just beginning to creep out. From Leeds to London, the dynamic duo have begun to spread their wings. It's gonna be a shotgun ride, and the 44s are gonna get you at point blank range.