Good Morning Little School Girl

The Mississippi hill country is the Delta’s tobacco-spitting, one-eye-missing, hard-luck cousin. Distinct in style from the more popular Delta blues of Robert Johnson, hill country blues is characterized by an emphasis on rhythm and percussive guitar. Mississippi Fred McDowell’s weathered voice soars over the hypnotic, droning groove of his bottleneck slide guitar. On several tracks his wife, Annie Mae, joins in, contributing her hoarse, high wail to the driving force of the spirituals. Standards like “Amazing Grace” and the titular “Good Morning Little School Girl” are transformed into haunting, elemental dirges. McDowell does not play rock ʼn’ roll, but the spirit is rollicking in this compilation of spirituals and blues.