Satan and Adam

Sterling Magee and Adam Gussow return with the first new Satan and Adam album in 12 years!

14 songs, including "Big Boss Man," "What'd I Say," "Every Day I Have the Blues," and many funky, bluesy originals. High quality, 145+ kb/s mp3s, mastered by a pro who happens to be a fan of the band. More than two hours of Harlem street blues.

I recorded these tracks in 1989, only six months before we went into the studio to lay down the first half of our debut album, Harlem Blues. Although I'm proud of each of our three studio albums, nothing on them quite represents what we were about. We began, and will always be, a busking duo: a couple of wildly energetic New York guys who take familiar songs, hurl them in a dozen different directions, and wring out every last drop of juice.

In the studio, we were forced to compress songs to fit the album form. Here, in Word on the Street, you've got how we actually sounded. Six of the songs on the album are 10 minutes or longer; one is more than 15 minutes.

This album puts you right there on 125th Street, a block from the Apollo Theater, with the warm, gritty street life swirling around you.

No other guitar/harmonica duo sounds remotely like Satan and Adam. There are many reasons for this. One is Magee's homemade trapset, featuring a matched pair of hi-hats, topped with tambourines, all laced down to a wooden clack-board. Another is Magee's one-of-a-kind guitar style: a combination of funk chord forms, groove-jazz feel, open droning strings, and 32nd note strums. Soulful vocals, of course. And Gussow's overblow-propelled harp, calling and responding, anchoring the groove.

Most of all, Satan and Adam is about relentless risk-taking. Make it new, make it hot, make it different. This is not your grandma's same old retro blues!