Sonny Sharrock - Kula-Mae
I've written before about the pair of extraordinary albums that Sonny Sharrock recorded with Bill Laswell in the mid-eighties. "Say something once," barked David Byrne, "why say it again?" Off the top of my head I can think of one excellent reason. If I didn't say it all over again, then there would be people who might never get a chance to hear Kula-Mae. And that would be a bad thing.

Kula-Mae comes from the 1986 album Guitar. It was the first album he'd recorded under his own name in far too long. If people had been paying attention, it would have placed him firmly back on top of the guitar pantheon where he belonged. Here he gives his own special twisted take on blues rock. Don't think that just because Sharrock has his roots in free jazz that he's some sort of detached observer here. The guy plays like he's got a bellyful and he takes familiar blues motifs and juxtaposes them unexpectedly and he gets in some of that full-on Sharrock guitar madness that we all love him for. As Beefheart said, "If you've got ears, you gotta listen."

Sonny Sharrock - Kula-Mae