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Nobody cranks the blues like Glenn Kaiser.  Face it, he's the Eric Clapton of Christian music.  Nobody is bigger or better.  His voice, divinely blessed with a dash of gravel, is perfect for the proper blues delivery.  He fingers the frets of his instruments as if he was born with them attached.   And his interpretation of traditional blues is so inspiring you almost forget he's white.

Is Ripley County Blues his best blues effort?  Possibly.  The opening cut ("Nick of Time") is a rip-roaring rocker that hearkens back to 1994's Spontaneous Combustion.  But you know it s going to moan and sweat (the recipe to a great blues record) when blue or blues are found in the titles of three cuts.  And let me tell you, this thing groans the blues.  It's good.  Real good.

The problem is pinning this beast down.  Like a hound dog on the hunt, Kaiser enjoys chasing the blues.  All types of blues. From the traditional ("Do Lord" and "Take Your Stand") to the memorable R&B of "I Got My Eyes On You." Kaiser's got plenty of toe-tappers that sizzle like a sultry summer day ("Workday Blues" and "Runaway Train" ).  Yet many of the cuts are stripped down, harmonica-laced smoky blues ( "Ripley County Blues," "Keep It To Yourself," and "Deliver Me" ) that harness their own special heat.

Of course, a Kaiser blues lick means little without his knack for crafting a fine lyric.  Some songs paraphrase scripture, such as the beatitudes in "Promises He'll Keep."     "Runaway Train" in particular lays some great tracks: 

           Blowing in the night
            Eyes wide open
            Sin in broad daylight
            Swallow till your chokin 

            Sowed all the oats
            Up came the weeds
            Thought I smelled sulfur
            From all my deeds

            I wanted pleasure
            Didn't worry how
            Up came the mirror
            Out came the howl

Is this Kaiser's best blues album?  Not in my mind.  He's done better, for me.  If you want blistering blues riffs, Spontaneous Combustion remains a standard.  If you hunger for no-holds-barred southern-fried rockers, Carolina Moon is sumptuous.  But Ripley County Blues is an honest work.  Like an old pair of blue jeans, it wears well. And for those who enjoy more traditional blues (with a few heaters in between), this one has a leg up. 

Rick Chromey 8/31/2002

Chicago is obviously Glenn Kaiser's kind of town.  Thirty years of ministry as a hands-on pastor, teacher, and minor blues / rock legend could probably qualify him for a key to the city.  Of course that would be too ostentatious for Kaiser, a regular guy who just so happens to have a history of juggling more ministry balls at Jesus People USA in a week than most of us could in a year!  As a cornerstone member of the seminal rock outfit, Resurrection Band, the Glenn Kaiser Band, and various other musical amalgamations, Kaiser has absorbed the city and poured it into his music, from the grittiest classic rock riffs to the smoothest rhythm and blues licks.  And while Chicago is a blues town, blues is fundamentally and proudly rural, poor folks' music.  No matter how "Chicago" it sounds after a good studio polish, the blues is back porch music and Glenn Kaiser has not forgotten.  In order to capture a taste of the "real deal," early this year Kaiser, bassist Roy Montroy, and drummer Ed Bialach found their "back porch," -- a log cabin lodge in rural southern Missouri on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest, to record Ripley Country Blues.  Raw, sweaty, funky, and still very "Chicago" at times, Ripley takes listeners back to basics and reward them for the journey.

As pastor, preacher, and everyman poet, Kaiser, a true bluesman, always keeps it real.  At times, with a down and dirty groove, he plainly admonishes the burgeoning hedonist in all of us ("Nick of Time" and "Playing with Fire") and other times resorts to bare-bones 12-bar storytelling ("Keep It toYourself").   A touch of Hammond B-3 organ here, a harmonica there, and this veteran three piece shows it stripes, pumping through the Robert Cray-like "Workday Blues;" transforming the traditional spiritual "Do Lord" into a rocking shuffle.  True to the form of a man who has seen his share of struggle, love, friendship, and spiritual change, Kaiser truly harnesses the heartache and beauty of the Blues on "Blue Rain Fall," "Deliver Me" and the wrenching title cut. 

Since it's an extraordinarily rare thing to hear Glenn Kaiser's name in the same sentence with the phrase "mediocre," saying that  Ripley is great music is almost redundant. Ripley County Blues show that sometimes returning to the roots, the back porch, can help even the most experienced players like Kaiser and his band make some new music for the city, the old fashion way.

Anthony Barr-Jeffrey 9/14/2002