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Dog My Cat 2001 (re-released 2006)
The album that launched one-man-band Harry Manx onto the international stage with its release in 2001 on Northern Blues was re-released in the fall of 2006 on his own independent label, Dog My Cat Records. Sparse, soulful, and contemplative, Dog My Cat highlights Harry’s brilliant mastery of the lap slide guitar, banjo, harmonica and vocals, not to mention the unique Mohan Veena – a 20- string Indian slide guitar.
Recorded in a single 11-hour studio session with only harmonica and occasional guitar solo overdubs, Dog My Cat captured the attention of music peers, fans and reviewers. Of the thirteen tunes on this album, most of them are Manx originals, including the favourites “Bring That Thing”, “Sunday Morning Ascension” and “Lay Down My Worries”. Two instrumental ragas emphasize Manx’s connection to India and that of his years of tutelage under Mohan Veena creator V.M. Bhatt.
Well-chosen cover tunes such as Muddy Waters’ “Can’t Be Satisfied” and “Baby Please Don’t Go” are given a new treatment that had one reviewer remarking “Finally, the promise of Ganges Delta blues is fulfilled.” (SonicNet) Merging traditional blues with that of Indian ragas, it’s this disc that established Harry Manx as the “essential link” between the music of the East and the West. As Harry himself says, “This CD is about the depth and truth of the blues, the transcendence of the raga. Some of the songs hint at the unspeakable, the rest are deep-rooted in the earth.”
Produced by Jordy Sharp
Harry Manx: Vocals, six string lap slide guitar, mohan veena, banjo and harmonica
Track Listing:
1. Can’t Be Satisfied 3:18
2. Bring That Thing 5:12
3. Good Morning Stranger 3:04
4. Reuben’s Train 4:07
5. Lay Down My Worries 3:15
6. Rag Bihag – (Dusk Rag) 1:53
7. Sunday Morning Ascension 3:57
8. Baby Please Don’t Go 2:43
9. Brick and Stone 3:02
10. Song for William 1:57
11. Love Ain’t No Game 4:15
12. Shame Shame Shame 3:12
13. Rag Jog – (Evening Rag) 1:12
“This is his first solo album, and as one might expect, it’s a fascinating hodgepodge of differing musical traditions. Happily, Dog My Cat has none of the hippie-dippy multicultural piety that afflicts so many East-meets-West musical experiments – Manx’s approach to the blues is gritty and straightforward, his original songs are tight and tuneful, and when he pauses to play a raga (as he does twice on this album), he manages to imbue the Indian musical form with a soulful depth that somehow has nothing and everything to do with the blues. Highlights are hard to identify on this album because its quality is so consistently high, but his rendition of the Muddy Waters standard “Can’t Be Satisfied” is especially fine, as are his own “Love Ain’t No Game” and the traditional “Reuben’s Train.”
~ Rick Anderson
“Each song possesses more feeling and emotion than a million pop songs could ever deliver.”
– Music Dish
“Dog My Cat is a very impressive collection of original blues songs … recommended.”
– Dirty Linen Magazine
Canadian Independent Music Award for Best Blues Album of the Year