**** Othar Turner & the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band

EVERYBODY HOLLERIN' GOAT

(Birdman)

This is blues from the days before blues began. Othar Turner leads what's apparently the last of the Mississippi fife-and-drum bands, playing a music that sounds straight off the slave ships. Turner, who's about 84 years old, blows a hand-carved cane flute over a clutch of drummers beating out trance-inducing polyrhythms with martial intensity. The difference between this music and its motherland parent is in the drums -- which are parade-style snares and basses rather than the skin-covered variety -- and the tunes. Turner's as likely to take a pass at "My Babe" (on this CD) or "Spoonful" (not here) as to play long, hip-shaking jams that induce the slow drag and other juke-joint dances that grind a whole lot dirtier than the lambada.

Everybody Hollerin' Goat is the first commercially available recording of this music in more than 20 years. It isn't a field recording, but it's not far from one. The 15 tracks are essentially jamming variations on Turner's usual repertoire, spiced up a bit when producer Luther Dickinson (son of Memphis music kingpin Jim Dickinson) sits in on slide guitar. "Shimmy She Wobble" and "2-Stepping Place" are especially mesmeric in their gamboling feel. Crank it up, get some barbecue and your favorite intoxicant, and shuffle around the room and you'll be approximating what goes on for 12 hours or more at Turner's annual summer picnics where his famous slow-smoked goat -- hence the title -- is the main dish. Bon appétit, y'all.

-- Ted Drozdowski