Road, Tim continues only two originals, choos- ing to spotlight songs written by fellow West Virginians over the years. “Guardian Angel” is a very beautiful,
heartfelt, tearful original song written about the death of his older sister when he was a toddler. For any of us who have lost a family member, I suppose that’s most of us, it’s a real tear jerker. Lovely.
The title track “Where the River Meets
the Road,” also penned by O’Brien, tells an- other deeply personal story of his family and his great grandfather’s move to his hometown of Wheeling in the 1850s. The remaining songs were compiled after
more than a decade of collaboration with the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. O’Brien’s work with the organization helped connect him with the wealth of great music created by West Virginia’s native sons and daughters. One outstanding track is the gospel num-
ber, “Friday, Sunday’s Coming,” which features Mollie O’Brien, and the traditional instrumen- tal “Queen of the Earth and Child of the Shies” showcases O’Brien on fiddle along with Nataniel Smith on cello. Absolutely beautiful, with a real Irish vibe. I like that. A lot. There is a great cover of a song I always
loved, Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands,” and “Drunkard’s Grave” is another favorite track of this writer, with its traditional country/blue- grass feel, and featuring the great Stuart Dun- can on fiddle and a pair of backing vocalists anyone would be thrilled to perform with, Kathy Mattea and Chris Stapleton. Besides Mattea and Stapleton, O’Brien gets a little help from friends Stuart Duncan, Mollie O’Brien, Noam Pikelny, and Bryan Sutton. Where the River Meets the Road is sure
to win Tim an armload of additional awards, and I predict it will be in all of the Americana “Top Albums of 2017” lists. Excellent.
- Michael Buffalo Smith
Popa Chubby The Catfish (Popa Chubby Produc- tions)
With a music career
which has spanned over twenty five years, New
York blues artist Ted Horowitz, aka Popa Chubby, continues to keep the sound fresh and the songs innovative on his latest release The Catfish. Popa Chubby shows he can not only dish it out with raw sheer attitude, but he can also approach a song with grace and elegance as well. The Catfish contains ten outstanding new songs, as well as two won- derful covers. Nothing quite compares to the magnifi-
cent instrumental “Blues For Charlie.” There’s a whole lot of heart and soul poured into Popa Chubby’s searing guitar perform- ance. On the subject of instrumentals, I also fell for “Wes is More”, a smooth jazzy number with a lot of pick-me-up and a sweet accom- paniment by the prestigious Dave Keys on piano, and drummer Dave Moore. In a bar- relhouse style, Keys plays a wonderful backup to Chubby on a delightful cover of Robert Johnson’s “C’mon In My Kitchen”. This is a fine cover indeed. Taking on the Everly Brothers 1957 hit, “Bye Bye Love” while adopting a reggae beat, Popa Chubby catches me off-guard when breaking into an amazing run of hummingbird-like guitar picking. This is one fantastic track. Popa Chubby’s daughter Tipitina pep-
pers the ominous and hypnotizing rhythm of another favorite, “Slow Down Sugar” with cool blasts of trumpet as Chubby raps through his own vocal harmonies. I tend to crank the volume up a smidge when I hear “Cry Till It’s a Dull Ache”, a vibrant nod to Seventies blues-rock with a John Kay and Steppenwolf feel. Chubby has his mojo run- ning on “Dirty Diesel” too. This rowdy rocker is loaded with smoking guitar licks and ram-
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