Big Daddy O knows best

Blues-folk artist delivers another understated masterpiece

Times Picayune, Saturday, October 18, 2008

By Keith Spera

With far less fanfare than he deserves, Owen "Big Daddy O" Tufts quietly goes about the business of crafting utterly unpretentious, completely charming, mostly acoustic blues-folk albums for the local Rabadash Records. The burly Mount Hermon resident brings to bear a deft touch on the guitar, a welcoming voice and a knack for choosing material that suits his strengths.

His latest effort, "What You Gotta Go Through," is yet another understated masterpiece. And unlike past efforts, Tufts wrote or co-wrote a half-dozen songs to augment his usual repertoire of covers.

The first bout of finger-picked acoustic guitar -- rich tone, nimble technique -- ushers in the opening cut, the intimate "What You Got to Go Through." Tufts confides, "Life ain't always easy, it can be a real bitch/Stuck in between what is and what if . . . You can kick and scream, no matter what you do/You can't go around what you gotta go through." He makes these words his own, even if he didn't write them.

Similarly he delivers a lovely acoustic reading of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel," shadowed on the chorus by Theresa Andersson's heavenly soprano. His own voice more than holds its own as he testifies on the a cappella "Ain't Gonna Worry." His acoustic carries the instrumental "GGT Ragtime."

Credit the album's agreeable tone and tenor in part to Rabadash Records founder John Autin. He not only contributed keyboards -- that's his Hammond B-3 that blooms from simmering background fill to full-on church solo in "Sportin' Life" -- but also produced the project. Autin conjured uncluttered arrangements that complement, rather than overwhelm, Tufts' voice and guitar. The songs are allowed to relax and breathe.

Which isn't to say Tufts and company don't kick out the jams when appropriate. Caught up in the low-slung, piano-driven boogie of "Don't Worry Bout It Baby," Tufts exclaims, "I love this!" He and the band have a high time with "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Jim Suhler's honey-rich slide guitar gooses the Southern back-porch boogie of "Heavenly Joy." Tufts' own "Got No Blues Today" swings and scoots along in the pocket, courtesy of Jim Markway's bass.

I generally prefer Tufts alone with an acoustic, but it's hard to quarrel with the inclusion of such simpatico collaborators. Dwight Breland ladles pedal steel guitar over the Anders Osborne composition "Down Here" and the haunting "Gulf Coast at Dawn," which Tufts co-wrote. Andersson's violin swoops across "If Only We Had the Time" and Osborne's "Underneath It All." Rick Trolsen's squat trombone bigfoots the standard "Sixteen Tons."

"Doin' His Job" salutes, with unabashed sincerity, those who do what is required of them and more, from mail carriers to truck drivers to waitresses to Christ on Calvary. Tufts, too, does yeoman's work.

From start to finish, "What You Gotta Go Through" comes across like an evening spent with close friends. No one likely requires such balm as deeply as Tufts himself. After he finished recording the tracks, but before the album's artwork was completed, his 22-year-old daughter, Celeste, died of cardiac arrhythmia, an undetected genetic heart defect.

Her father dedicated "What You Gotta Go Through" to her memory.