Something Else! sneak peek: Booker T., “Father Son Blues” from Sound The Alarm (2013)

Booker T.’s “Father Son Blues” — which, yes, features his talented offspring Ted Jones — opens with a grease-popping organ lick before recapturing a groove familiar to anyone who ever soaked up a Stax Records side back in the day.

Not that there aren’t new things to dig into. In fact, if you listen hard enough, you almost hear a whisper of ZZ Hill’s “Down Home Blues,” just before the younger Jones unleashes a scalding guitar aside. Booker T., who composed or collaborated on each of the 12 songs featured throughout Sound the Alarm, then returns with a mind-bogglingly soulful solo — highlighted by this shivery one-note declamation.

Along the way, “Father Son Blues” certainly heralds a return to grittier, more elemental sounds — the warm, generation-defining sounds, in fact, of his old Stax house band Booker T. and the MGS — after Jones’ experiments in fusion and hip hop on the guest-packed, Grammy-winning Road to Memphis.

Look for Sound The Alarm on June 25, 2013, from Concord. Booker T.’s featured band this time includes the Avila brothers and guitarist Raphael Saadiq. Luke James (“All Over The Place”), Mayer Hawthorne (“Sound the Alarm”), Sheila E (“66 Impala”) and Gary Clark Jr. (“Austin City Blues”) also appear.

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Nick DeRiso

Nick DeRiso has written for USA Today, American Songwriter, All About Jazz, and a host of others. Honored as columnist of the year five times by the Associated Press, Louisiana Press Association and Louisiana Sports Writers Association, he oversaw a daily section named Top 10 in the U.S. by the AP before co-founding Something Else! Nick is now assistant managing editor with Townsqaure Media. Listen to NICKRADIO here: bit.ly/NICKRADIO.

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