This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The good news is that Mississippi farmer Asie Payton is THE blues find of ’99: A bad mammer-jammer with a soulful, sour-mash voice who can moan the blues like a broke-down piece of man or screech ’em like a hoodoo devil with a hellhound on his tail — and he sounds just as good backed by a chooglin’ Memphis-style R&B outfit as he does plucking his pawnshop guitar.
The bad news? This debut CD is also his last — Payton died in the saddle of his tractor in 1997. Luckily, before he went, Delta blues preservationist label Fat Possum coaxed him into the studio to cut 10 raw, R.L. Burnside-ish sides guaranted to smack your jaw down to the ground — and then glue a smile to your mug once you pick it up again. He just might be the greatest blues legend that never was.
