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PAUL RISHELL AND ANNIE RAINES
A HANDY BLUES DUO
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When the Blues Foundation’s members convene to nominate the best albums and artists of the genre next year, the Cambridge-based duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines are a shoo-in. Their new Goin’ Home (Tone-Cool) is the finest release in their 11-year collaboration, with a breadth of styles and sounds focused on graceful playing and singing — the kind of beatific performances that transcend style to reach a place in the human heart. They’ve already won one of the foundation’s W.C. Handy Awards, the Acoustic Blues Album of the Year prize for 2000’s Moving to the Country (Tone-Cool). But with songs as poignantly played and sung as their performances of Washington Phillips’s "I Had a Good Mother and Father" and Charley Patton’s "Some of These Days (I’ll Be Gone)," they’re due again. That was apparent from their October 12 CD-release concert at Scullers. They opened as a duo, with Raines pulling full, rich tones from both standard and chromatic harmonicas and Rishell hunched over his resonator guitar plucking out angelic chords and melodies. "Some of These Days" was an especially wistful expression of heartache that stilled the room as Rishell’s voice deftly and sweetly negotiated the melody he’d created for this arrangement. And Raines doubled on mandolin for the Phillips number, adding her own bright, ringing lines. Both artists have both grown as vocalists since 2000’s Moving to the Country. For Raines, it’s a matter of development. As she’s sung more and more of their repertoire, she’s honed her vibrato and pitch; you could hear the difference on Ma Rainey’s "Black Eye Blues," a highlight of both the new disc and their Scullers show. As for Rishell, prosthetic surgery in one of his ears has restored to him his full range as a singer, and he’s now superbly emotive. For the finale of their first set, Rishell and Raines brought out their full electric band with guest pianist David Maxwell. "Kansas City Blues" and "It Ain’t Right," the latter a romping funk-blues from their new CD, pumped up the volume and the energy, but by then Rishell and Raines had displayed a winning mix of charisma and virtuosity all their own.
BY TED DROZDOWSKI
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