The title of this one-sided LP stands as double allusion: first, to the location from which this live document was recorded, the High Street Project in Christchurch, New Zealand; and second, to the American south and its raw blues tradition upon which Orcutt is building, but never simply mimicking.
If anything, the lineage between the Mississippi Delta’s musical heritage and the raw avant-primitivism of the ex-Harry Pussy man is even more clearly demarcated than on his fine debut album, A New Way To Pay Old Debts. His sporadic vocal accompaniments (often sounding like an asphyxiated Alan Bishop) are now prominent, his playing more deftly assured, nuanced departures from previous rootless tumbles. It’s as if Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground were being juiced up on high energy drinks and flayed to within an inch of its wretched existence.
Way Down South harnesses the physicality of Orcutt’s unique approach when confronting the limitations of tradition (and his instrument), as well as his exuberantly dynamic performance style. The set ends with a horrifying banshee wail; part whoop of sheer celebratory delight, part primal symptom of exhaustive, eviscerating self-exorcism. It’s a great record.
