Ragged and Right

With *Ragged and Right* Takoma Records revivalist Jack Rose takes a break from approximating the meticulous fretboard dexterity of John Fahey and Robbie Basho to record some old-school twang with No-Neck Blues Band’s Dave Shuford and his Americana ensemble D. Charles Speer & the Helix. Released posthumously (Rose died of a heart attack in 2009), the first song reveals an adoration for Vernon Wray’s 1972 solo album *Wasted* as *Ragged and Right* opens with a cover from what Wray’s fans call *Three Track Shack* (the original recordings were cut on three tracks in a converted hen house). “Prison Song” opens with parlor piano and pedal steel before baritone inflections fall from Shuford’s mouth like he was channeling Johnny Cash. “Linden Avenue Stomp” is the sole original tune here. It’s an instrumental with locomotive momentum gathering gusto as piano notes collide with pedal steel under a tipsy tangle of bubbling bass lines, fingerpicked electric guitars and pedaling drums. Merle Haggard’s “The Longer You Wait” and the traditional “In the Pines” get a tongue-in-cheek treatment with Shuford’s affected drawl.