Dirt Floor

Artist: Chris Whitley
Label: Messenger Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 632662100424
EAN: 0632662100424
ASIN: B000006CBQ

Release Date: 1998-03-17

Dirt Floor

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Tracks:

Scrapyard Lullaby
Indian Summer
Accordingly
Wild Country
Ball Peen Hammer
From One Island To Another
Altitude
Dirt Floor
Loco Girl

Similar Items:

Living With the Law
War Crime Blues
Reiter In
Hotel Vast Horizon
Soft Dangerous Shores

Amazon.com

An excellent slide guitarist with a confident, veloce curviness that varies high, lonesome country with moaning country blues, Whitley unraveled his early commercial potential one album at a time. He deserves our admiration for following up his mostly acoustic debut, <I>Living with the Law,</I> with a pair of white-noise albums loud enough to make Sonic Youth wear earplugs. But he also lost his lucrative contract with Sony. "Dirt Floor," with a barren, desperate quality and iterative images of running (especially on the intense "Ballpeen Hammer" and the love-and-loss ballad "Loco Girl") has the same airy, blues feeling of his superb early singles. <I>--Steve Knopper</I>

Customer Reviews:

raw acoutic blues, a real winner........2007-01-23

this is a fantastic recording of low-down raw acoustic blues. the production has a real live flavor that is carried along by a raunchy rythmic groove. whitley is one of the few white singers who can sing the blues without sounding light-weight (or just plain silly), and his guitar playing is tough sounding, without any of that over-produced quality that so many modern blues recording suffer from. great stuff.

The Truth.......2006-12-12

Recorded in two days, in a barn in Vermont, there is nothing on this record save for gleaming chords and ferocious grimy footstomps, and a voice that makes you want to drive your car over the edge of the highest bridge in the world. When that national guitar hits you, you feel it in your chest like a physical blow, you feel it in your spine, and you feel it in your throat, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "And the mist shall be your balanket...as the dirt shall be your bed."

Let hell rise up if there is anything on this earth is as true as this album. When it's raining and you are alone, and you listen, you begin to understand what it means to be alive.

Enjoy.

If you only buy 1 Chris Whitley album, buy this one!.......2006-03-19

Probably the most difficult obstacle Chris Whitley faced during his career was that he had a hard time building a solid fan base, because his sound always drastically changed from album to album. He was an experimenter and an innovator, and his albums are very hit-and-miss for me. I liked his electric stuff OK, but I think he really shined on the albums where he threw out all the other instruments and electronic experimentation and just sang and played his heart out on slide guitar (sometimes accompanied by a straight beat from a bass drum or stomp box). "Dirt Floor" is by far the very best of his acoustic albums, and my only complaint about it would be that it is too short!!! It is not a quite a blues album, although many of the songs are definitely blues influenced, but more of a folksy, dark, gritty, acoustic singer-songwriter album. (and his lyrics are excellent, conjuring up visions of steel mills, grinding gears, hot city streets, and dusty forgotten desert towns - real genuine blues stuff!)
If you buy this album (which you should), and you love it (which you will), also try "War Crime Blues" (about 90% stripped down acoustic songs), "Live At Martyr's" (acoustic live - high energy), "Weed" (lots of his electric songs re-done acoustic), "Perfect Day" (acoustic covers, done with Madeski and Wood), and the out-of-print "Poison Girl" EP, if you can find it. "Hotel Vast Horizon" isn't too bad either, but it just doesn't seem as inspired as the others, and "Long Way Around: An Anthology" has several good acoustic demos and the better stuff from his electic experimentation.
It's too bad he had to go and die on us, before he could make more awesome music...

One of his finest works.......2005-12-29

Dirt Floor would be a return to form for Chris Whitley after the uneven songwriting that dominated his previous release Terra Incognita. Now recording on an independent label, Chris would achieve his vision of creative control after his previous albums showed clear attempts of his label attempting to commercialize his music. It would also be a stylistic change as Chris would abandon the heavy grunge of Din of Ecstasy and Terra Incognita in favor of a softer acoustic setting which put the sole focus on his songs, much like Neil Young has done throughout his career. As a result, Whitley's songwriting abilities received a kickstart as Dirt Floor would prove to be his most consistent collection of songs and every album from here until his sudden death would be top notch.

In listening to Dirt Floor, what becomes most apparent is a newfound tenderness to his work that was only hinted at in his previous releases. Songs like the wistful "Accordingly" and the pretty "Loco Girl" are among the most heartfelt songs you'll ever hear while "Wild Country", "Scrapyard Lullaby", and the title track show a sense of reflection that would become an integral part of future releases such as Perfect Day and Soft Dangerous Shores. "Indian Summer" shows Chris' continued love of the blues albeit in a more intimate setting. However, the sorrow and decadence that dominated Din of Ecstasy and Terra Incognita are not completely abandoned as exhibited in his performances on "Altitude" and the fiery "Ballpeen Hammer." Finally, the sparseness of "From One Island to Another" is his most haunting piece and features one of his most somber vocal performances. As on most of his albums, Chris' emotional vocals as well as his mastery of the banjo remain a thing of beauty and complement the mood of each track perfectly. All told, Dirt Floor would prove to be one of the finest works of an artist that left us too soon. Highly recommended.

R.I.P. we will miss you........2005-12-06

A piece of our hearts have gone with the beloved Chris Whitley. I leave this comment here, because this is where it all started. If you go to Chris Whitley's official website you will see why as well. Also, please read the touching eulogy his daughter, Trixie has left.
I feel like I have lost a friend. A hero. A mentor. An inspiration in the truest form.

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