(blues) Asie Payton - Worried - (Fat Possum) - 1999, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Asie Payton died in 1997 at the age of 60. He was a hard-working farmer who lived below the poverty level. Most Saturday nights he could be found playing the blues at one of the two small grocery stores that were among the only businesses to be found in his north Mississippi hometown. After much coaxing, he agreed to be recorded during two different sessions.

Originally recorded as demos, these were the only sessions Asie Payton ever recorded. He suffered a fatal heart attack while driving his tractor on the same fields he'd been working for almost his entire life. WORRIED became his debut and posthumous release two years later. The passion and commitment in this music is undeniable. While possessing the same rough edges as labelmates R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and T-Model Ford, Payton's is a decidedly friendlier outlook. In "Worried Life" he professes to be "worried as a man can be" but doesn't succumb to anger; instead, he just wonders what the future holds in store.

Reviews:

Worried captures a 10-spot of the visceral Delta blues of the late Asie Payton, impoverished farmer and second-generation weekend country-grocery musician. The crew at Oxford, Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records intended to use these sessions as demo tapes to spark interest, yet they were unable to woo the gifted Payton from his tractor, on which he suffered a heart attack in the spring of 1997. Recorded at Junior Kimbrough's club, "Come Home with me" and "Skinny Legs & All" recall the lusty heat and wobbly cock-of-the-walk pride (minus the lewdness) of label-mate R.L. Burnside. Yet, as he spells out on the trippy progressive blues, "Asie's Jam," Payton's soulful herky-jerky guitar and ragged voice communicate from a place born of hardship, depth, and reckoned gentleness. In the spirit and tradition of Othar Turner's Everybody Hollerin' Goat, Worried becomes not a pity party at Payton's grave, but a celebration. From the top, his wide-open strum kicks off with Sam Carr's gorgeously ramshackle ass-wigglin' drumming, and "I Love You" soars and pops like a bottle rocket bearing a message of good will. --Paige La Grone

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Asie Payton never released a record in his life, despite the best efforts of Fat Possum. The label spent nearly two years in the middle of the '90s trying to convince the Mississippi bluesman that he should record or gig outside of his home of Washington County. Eventually, the coaxed him into two recording sessions, one at their old studio, the other at Junior Kimbrough's club. This music was never released during Payton's lifetime, but it provides the basis for Worried, Fat Possum's posthumous 1999 release. For anybody that complains that modern electric blues sounds too clean and careful, Worried is the perfect antidote -- this is gritty, dirty electric blues, sounding every bit as greasy as the classic recordings of the '50s and '60s. What's even more impressive is that the songs are rarely predictible blues standards -- they're traditional songs (only "Can't Be Satisfied" and "Skinny Legs & All" are crossover favorites), given original, idiosyncratic arrangements by Payton. Usually, he's simply performing with drummer Sam Carr, but they're as raucous, loud and overpowering as a full band (as proven by the few tracks that are augmented by other musicians, which are no less chaotic than the stripped-back cuts). In an age when most blues albums sound canned, this is vibrant, exciting and real, reminiscent of the golden age of blues. And that's a pretty powerful last testament. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide