Bobby Rush, All My Love For You, album cover front

Review: Bobby Rush ‘All My Love For You’

By Martine Ehrenclou

Two-time Grammy winner, Blues Hall of Famer and 16-time Blues Music Award winner, Bobby Rush does it again with his new album All My Love For You. It’s a delight, funny, and sometimes raunchy, with well-crafted songs and stellar musicianship. Rush is one of the greats, a legendary bluesman, and All My Love For You is one of his best. At age 89, that is no small accomplishment. But for Rush, who seems to have an endless supply of energy, maybe it is.

An album of ten original tunes written and produced by Rush, All My Love For You is semi-autobiographical. And rich history it is. Rush has led a fascinating life from being The King of the Chitlin Circuit, performing with Elmore James and B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, to winning his first Grammy Award at age 83 for his album Porcupine Meat. Since then he’s only gotten better, more popular. His last album Rawer Than Raw also won a Grammy Award, followed by the re-recording of his 1971 hit Chicken Heads with Buddy Guy, Gov’t Mule and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram. Not content to stop there, he wrote his critically acclaimed autobiography ‘I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya: My American Blues Story’.

Growing up in rural Louisiana, Bobby Rush (Emmett Ellis, Jr) picked cotton at age nine on his family’s farm, living in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing. Rush uses that history as fodder for fascinating stories in the form of well crafted, funky, bluesy songs. In each one, you feel his joy and humor, his soulfulness in his singing, harmonica and guitar. Bobby Rush is an inspiration. And he’s backed by a kickass band who really get him and his in-the-pocket groove. They are Dexter Allen (guitar, bass) and Joey Robinson (keyboard, drums.)

Kicking off the record is the catchy standout “I’m Free,” a funky autobiographical tale about Rush picking cotton in the fields. It’s his ode to getting out of that life at such a young age and running his own show with no one telling him what to do. With backing singers, horn section, and compelling piano and guitar, this is one of many on the album where the rhythm section is so deep in the pocket that you can hear the intuitive sparks fly between the band members. Rush’s expert harmonica rides the groove. “I’m free, I’m free, look at me,” he sings. “I got the shackles off my feet, chains off my mind.” It’s a testament to his life, his history and resilience.

“I’m Free”

 
Humor is part of Bobby Rush’s All My Love For You, complete with laugh-out-loud lyrics. He communicates feel-good humor with his vocals, like on “TV Mama”, another standout tune about the woman he loves “the one with the big wide screen.” His harp playing is as good as ever, as if Rush lives and breathes that instrument.

“I’m the One,” another standout, is all Bobby Rush and how he was born to sing the blues. But not like B.B. King, Guitar Slim or Muddy Waters. “I’m the one who put the funk in the blues,” he sings. Celebrating his history, including what he learned from B.B. King and Muddy Waters after arriving in Chicago in 1952, this song has hit all over it.

Rush gets serious on “You’re Gonna Need A Man Like Me” a bluesy number about love lost. Rush delivers a soulful song about his wish that the woman who left him would return. You don’t doubt for a minute that he probably lived this story too, his harp as soulful and authentic as his vocals.

Highly recommended.

All My Love For You is out August 18 via Deep Rush Records / Thirty Tigers

Bobby Rush website