Published at 13:36, Thursday, 24 April 2008

Mojo Buford – Penrith Live Blues, Penrith PlayhouseWith his numerous harmonicas in a gun-sling around him octogenarian bluesman Mojo Buford, in his last ever UK tour, gave this sell-out audience a taste of America’s south.

Mojo is best known for having played harmonica for the Muddy Waters Band in the Sixties and Seventies. In Memphis he met BB King and got involved in the local blues scene, leading to him playing with legendary performers like Albert Collins and Chuck Berry. He is one of the few remaining blues legends.

After some hard rocking blues by his well-honed touring band Mojo took the stage and proved that the blues has kept his spirit youthful and his superb harmonica skills perfect. The voice is a little fainter than that of a more youthful man but still has a rasping blues timbre. There was a warm atmosphere of great respect from the audience for a man of humour and vitality. You can’t help but wish you could spend a whole heap of time with this guy. He’d have some great tales to tell.

It was a rare privilege to see and hear Mojo perform such timeless standards as Hoochie Coochie Man and other Muddy Waters and BB King classics.

Mojo is of the generation of musicians that created modern music; one of the originals who influenced the likes of the Stones. He and his contemporaries are the very bones of the blues and we can always say now that we have seen him, live, and in Penrith.

FI EXON

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk