Had to remind myself who Teresa Lynne is. Female harmonica players aren’t that common so I shouldn’t really have forgotten her but it has been a while since her last album “Mistress of the Blues” so perhaps she’ll forgive me.
“Tear Drop Collector” is a straightforward blues album and there was a time when that would have got a “so what” from me but the times they are a changing and the future is the past. I’m getting carried away (again) but a point – an important one – has to be made here. Ms Lynne has made and album that reeks of honesty. There’s no pretence here and certainly no evidence that she had to resort to electronic trickery to get that downhome 12 bar groove down and dusted while dragging in the likes of Bob Margolin to help out does no harm either. Most of the album’s songs were written by Ms Lynne and she harks back to old school motivations like cheating men (“One More Lie”) for lyrical inspiration. That fits nicely with her world weary yet purposeful voice - I like a woman that knows what she is singing about.
Curiously for a harmonica player, her harmonica is relegated to a supporting role for much of this album and, perhaps as a consequence of that, it is the more adventurous songs like “Lucky Moon” and “Should’ve Been Mine” that work best. Interestingly, it is Ms Lynne’s moving take on the standard “Summertime” that makes the most effective use of her prowess on said instrument.
“Tear Drop Collector” is an album that takes me back to the days of my early ventures into the blues courtesy of Alligator Records and I, for one, am very glad that it awakes those old feelings. I was beginning to think that such albums didn’t exist anymore. Sentiment. It’s a wonderful thing.
Available from CD Baby.