T-Model Ford
The Ladies Man
Alive Records – 2010

Musicians:James “T-Model” Ford: vocals and guitar/Dustin Arbuckle: harmonica/Stefan Zillioux:guitar/Aaron Moreland:guitar/Martin Reinsel:percussion/ Styarr Harris:percussion and muse/Jon Kirby Newman:in spirit
Track Listing: Chicken Head Man/Two Trains/I’m Coming to Lick Yer Asses/I Love You Baby/44 Blues/Sallie Mae/My Babe/I Was Born in a Swamp/That’s Alright/Love Me All Night Long/Hip Shaking Woman

T-Model Ford has the blues man reputation. He was born somewhere around 1920, and working the fields on his family farm by eleven. Ford has worked a variety of labor jobs, done time on a chain gang for murder, and is rumored to play out now with his eleven year old step-son drumming. The myths of the man in this case, seem to be pale in comparison to his realities.

Also known as the Taledragger, Ford is a self taught guitarist who says he was inspired by listening to Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf his whole life. At the age of fifty-eight he had an opportunity, and sat down to figure out how to play the guitar like his idols. He is cocksure and full of himself, as only an eighty year old bluesman with a pacemaker and a major attitude should be. This album is the real deal- raw and rocking. His strum and stomp style is hypnotic, and paired with T-Model’s gravely voice, it feels rather like stepping into a bygone porch session.

For this album, Ford sat in with a full band in a studio, and in spite of the fact that he seems more like a street corner brusker, the results are amazing. In between songs, the conversations between T-Model and the others are left in, and give the impression that even some of these guys were amazed at their luck in playing with a man this legendary. Barring a plan to travel to Greenville, Mississippi to look up T-Model Ford, Alive records has captured an intimate look into the music of the man, and is certainly the next best thing.

-Amy Randall

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