Blues Preacher
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album|
| name = Blues Preacher
| type = Album
| artist = James Blood Ulmer
| cover = Blues Preacher.jpg
| alt =
| released = 1993
| recorded = September–November, 1992
| venue =
| studio =
| length =
| label = DIW
| producer = Kazunori Sugiyama, James Blood Ulmer
| chronology = James Blood Ulmer
| prev_title = Black and Blues
| prev_year = 1990
| next_title = Harmolodic Guitar with Strings
| next_year = 1993
| misc = {{Extra album cover
| header = DIW Records Cover
| type = Album
| cover = Blues Preacher DIW.jpg
| border =
| alt =
| caption =
}}
}}
Blues Preacher is an album by the American guitarist James Blood Ulmer, recorded in 1992 and released in Japan on DIW Records and in the US on Columbia/DIW.[http://outbreakin.hp.infoseek.co.jp/jamesulmer.htm James Blood Ulmer discography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091105090208/http://outbreakin.hp.infoseek.co.jp/jamesulmer.htm |date=2009-11-05 }} accessed July 13, 2010{{Cite web|url=https://jazztimes.com/archives/james-blood-ulmer-memphis-blood-the-sun-sessions/|title=James "Blood" Ulmer: Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions|first=Bill|last=Milkowski|website=JazzTimes}} It was released in North America in 1994.{{cite journal |last1=Ehrlich |first1=Dmitri |title=Crank up the old and ring in the new — Blues Preacher by James Blood Ulmer |journal=Interview |date=Jan 1994 |volume=24 |issue=1 |page=36}}
Production
Ulmer built the album around the drums, which he recorded with guitar and bass; he then rerecorded the guitar and bass parts once he was satisfied with the drum track.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgwDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA229|title=Pressed for All Time: Producing the Great Jazz Albums from Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday to Miles Davis and Diana Krall|first=Michael|last=Jarrett|date=August 30, 2016|publisher=UNC Press Books|via=Google Books}} Ulmer played a Steinberger on Blues Preacher.{{cite journal |last1=Milkowski |first1=Bill |title=James Blood Ulmer's harmolodic blues |journal=Guitar Player |date=Apr 1994 |volume=28 |issue=4 |page=16}} "Jazz Is the Teacher (Funk the Preacher)" is a slower version of an older Ulmer song.{{cite news |last1=Levesque |first1=Roger |title=Rhythm & Blues |work=Edmonton Journal |date=25 Apr 1994 |page=A12}}
Reception
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{rating|1.5|5}}
|rev2 = The Indianapolis Star
|rev2score = {{rating|3|4}}{{cite news |last1=Konz |first1=Joe |title=James Blood Ulmer 'Blues Preacher' |work=The Indianapolis Star |date=18 Feb 1994 |page=D5}}
|rev3 = Orlando Sentinel
|rev3score = {{rating|4|5}}{{cite news |last1=Gettelman |first1=Parry |title=James Blood Ulmer, Blues Preacher |work=Orlando Sentinel |date=15 Apr 1994 |department=Calendar |page=7}}
|rev4 = (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide
}}
Trouser Press wrote that "the record places the emphasis on Blood's vocals amid unwavering rock and funk rhythms and more faux-metal guitars."{{cite web |title=James Blood Ulmer |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/james-blood-ulmer/ |website=Trouser Press |access-date=9 September 2022}} The Austin American-Statesman opined that "Ullmer's version of the [blues], full of crunching guitar chords and throat-ripping vocals, is well off the beaten path as idiosyncratic song structures and sermonizing lyrics take the music to new locations."{{cite news |last1=Point |first1=Michael |title=And now for something completely different... |work=Austin American-Statesman |date=27 Jan 1994 |department=Onward |page=14}}
The Indianapolis Star praised Ronald Drayton's "dazzling—and sometimes psychedelic—guitar variations and juxtapositions." The Orlando Sentinel wrote that "Nobody but You" "is a gorgeous, Jimi Hendrix-style love ballad punctured by poison-tipped guitar licks—with Ulmer playing flute in a funky interlude." Stereo Review noted that "in the noble tradition of early rock-and-roll, the words to some of the songs are so slurred and muffled as to be open to conjecture."{{cite journal |title=Jazz – Blues Preacher by James 'Blood' Ulmer |journal=Stereo Review |date=May 1994 |volume=59 |issue=5 |page=90}}
The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow stated: "Ulmer sticks to a harsh blues-rock groove, with many of the one-chord vamps sounding like they are leftovers from John Lee Hooker's repertoire. There are no harmolodics (and little jazz) to be heard on the CD, and this rather primitive music is to be recommended only to fans of Ulmer's shouting vocals."Yanow, S. [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r188934|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic Review] accessed July 13, 2010
Track listing
:All compositions by James Blood Ulmer
- "Cheering" – 6:45
- "Alone to Wonder" – 6:17
- "Let Me Take You Home" – 5:15
- "Who Let the Cat Out of the Bag?" – 4:37
- "Jazz Is the Teacher (Funk the Preacher)" – 6:45
- "Justice for Us All" – 5:05
- "Nobody but You" – 5:40
- "Blues Allnight" – 6:30
- "Get Up" – 7:35
- "Angel" – 7:05
- Recorded at Sound On Sound, NYC in September through November, 1992
Personnel
- James Blood Ulmer – guitar, vocals
- Mark E. Peterson – bass (tracks 1–9)
- Ronald Drayton – guitar (tracks 1–9)
- Aubrey Dayle – drums
- William "Spaceman" Patterson – synthesizer, drums, keyboards (track 10)
- Delmar Brown – keyboards (track 10)
- Irene Datcher – vocals (track 10)