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Satan and Adam:  Throw Down!

 

 

 

Purchase from Tradebit as either high quality mp3s (256 mb/s) or CD-quality WAV files.  Both versions come as zip files that include print-and-trim liner notes. 

You can also purchase Throw Down! (and check out previews) from iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby.

 

The blues duo Satan and Adam (Sterling Magee and Adam Gussow) came into being on the streets of Harlem in 1986, almost 30 years ago.  Their epic story, detailed in a soon-to-be-released documentary, has been accompanied by four studio albums and one collection of early street recordings, Word on the Street.  

Yet everybody who saw them back in the day--the 1990s, when they were a festival attraction on international stages--remembers them first as a dazzling live act:  black and white, older and younger, guitar (plus percussion) and harmonica, two passionate New York blues players kicking up a storm.  

Throw Down! is, amazingly, their first live album.

The phrase "Throw down!" is trash-talk among card players:  Show me whatcha got!  Captured on DAT by a professional bootlegger back in 1994, Throw Down! gives you Magee and Gussow in their prime, holding nothing back. 

 As singer and front-man, Magee has a harsh, throaty roar and a huge personality.  He's a soul man from Harlem's hip-hopping streets, spitting out rapid-fire syllables when the spirit moves him.  As a rhythm guitarist/percussionist, he's an astonishing virtuouso, torching the fretboard here during extended solos on "Cry to Me" and "I've Got a Woman."

Gussow matches Magee step for step.  His harp lines--sweet, rough, always melodic--weave themselves through Magee's guitar and vocals, breaking into the upper register like a bebop sax when it's solo time.

Together, Satan and Adam reinvent the blues's oldest duo format, guitar and harmonica, in an explosively original way.   

Throw Down! is jazzy, funky rhythm-and-blues with an urban edge and a down-home vibe.   

 

Here's the track list, with time-stamps and harp keys:

1) Sunshine in the Shade/Will It Go Round in Circles 12:25 A
2) Groovy People 5:32 C
3) Cry to Me 8:12 A
4) Mr. Cantrell 6:10 A
5) Seventh Avenue (Oh She Was Pretty) 7:09 C
6) Sanctified Blues 6:43 A
7) Fever 3:23 C
8) I've Got a Woman 8:23 A 

 

Throw Down!  Eight extended-length live tracks.  More than 58 minutes of music.

 

Very special thanks to Bob Siegl (engineer) and Zeke Hubbard for putting this remarkable recording into our hands.  Edited and sequenced by Bryan W. Ward at The Tone Room in Oxford, MS.  Mastering by Jeffrey Reed at Taproot Audio Design in Oxford, MS.  Cover design by Grant Kessler.  Produced by Adam Gussow. 

 

Don't forget to support Satan and Adam, the documentary film, which is rapidly moving towards completion.  An Indiegogo campaign is forthcoming.  Here are social media links:

www.satanandadamfilm.com

Facebook.com/satanandadamfilm

Twitter.com/satanandadam

Instagram.com/satanandadamfilm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

Modern Blues Harmonica supports

§The Jazz Foundation of America

and

§The Innocence Project

 

 

 

ADAM GUSSOW is an official endorser for HOHNER HARMONICAS