Comments (0) Best CD By a Local Musician - 2009
Little Joe Washington, Texas Fire Line
Readers' Choice: The Tontons, self-titled
No static CD could ever match the intensity of one of Little Joe Washington's live shows, which are one part gospel revival and one part juke-joint boogaloo breakdown, but Texas Fire Line sure comes close. Recorded live in the studio (that sure helps), Fire Line is a frenzied tour de force from one of Houston's biggest musical treasures and free-spirited local icons. Full of Washington's Gulf Coast guitar-slinging and suffused with Memphis soul (trumpeter Al Gomez and saxman Mark Kazanoff shine on every song), Fire Line climaxes on the blustery, bitter blues of "Ike," which proves even a mighty hurricane is no match for Little Joe's singular guitar alchemy.
