Living Blues 2006

19th STREET RED

Street Dog

Redtop RTR-003

19th Street Red is the nom du disque of Randy Cohen, a New Orleans street musician whose previous CD, 2003 Red Hot, featured him in the one-man band setting that he employs on the city's street corners.

This time out, Red's guitar is joined by electric bass and drums on most tracks, which include remarkably credible renditions of familiar fare from Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Hound Dog Taylor, and John Lee Hooker. Songs like Red Hot Mama, with Red signing uncannily like Wolf and playing unchangingly like Elmore, would be fun to try in a blindfold test on some unsuspecting listener. The several tracks without the band have more of a postwar Texas flavor, with vocals on some of them distorted by being run through Red's five-watt amp. Nothing very original here, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

- JDK

Return to Main Applause Page