ANDY GILL THE INDEPENDENT
Friday 6th February 2009
****
Jeb Loy Nichols describes PARISH BAR as "some covers, some jazz, some country, some soul...what it sounds like at my house". If so, Nichols's house sounds like the place to be, never more so than when he's spinning "Countrymusicdisco45", the infectious leadoff track. Over what sounds like a swamp-funk version of the "Superstition" riff, Nichols explains how he was getting down at a club when a country record came on and killed the mood, everywhere except in his head, and how he tried to convert the throng to "the new country style" by demonstrating a ridiculous dance- "roll like the wind and scoot like a rooster/skip around the room like you usta". Fun, funky. Elsewhere, his familiar crossover style is in full effect, with dancehall twitches enlivening the country standard "I'm Blue I'm Lonesome Too" and the country-funk groove "Whole Thing Going On"; the classic "Just a Country Boy" whispered over an itchy drum shuffle in his baritone murmur; "Foggy Road Ride" sounding like "Family Affair"-era Family Stone; "Neath the Cold Ground" and "So Sad" navigating the area between dub, blues, country and funk, and Nichols' own booze warning, "Satan's Helper", done Lambchop style. His best collection, by far.