Over the course of several albums, Milwaukee blues singer Gerome Durham has moved toward the synth-driven R&B of Southern soul. Durham’s always homey, nearly conversational singing fits well with his stylistic shift on AKA Mississippi Blues Boy. He’s especially strong when advancing the templates set forth by blues/Southern soul crossover forebears such as Mel Waiters and Marvin Sease as he sings about love, his non-barking dog, romantic regret and the travails of a typical Thursday morning.
However, Boy’s idiosyncrasies, perhaps foisted upon Durham by producer Marcus Gibbons, yield strange results, such as electronic vocal effects applied to Durham’s female counterpart and oddly phrased sexy talk on a slow jam duet. Bookending the set’s mere eight songs are a shout-out for the producer’s studio and almost two minutes of sound FX and spoken word to conclude. Durham’s singing is a comfy fit to commercial Southern soul aspirations, but he may want to ease back on the experimentations and reconnect with his electric All-Star Band to fill out his next long-player.
