Two guys playing the blues—not the sanitized stuff you get in the bro bars but the raw, greasy, messy kind. Guitars, harmonica, drums and voices—that’s all that’s here, no overblown arrangements and phony posturing. Maybe you’re thinking Black Keys but don’t stop there; go back, go deeper. There’s the Hill Country/Delta roots that the more famous duo traffics in, sure, but there’s soul too—the Memphis half of their intriguing name is no coincidence. They even engineered it at Sun Studios—and if you detect some hip-hop and a sizable dollop of rock-and-roll attitude, you’re not off. One of them, Cam Kimbrough, has the heritage built in—his granddad, Junior Kimbrough, was the real shit, Mississippi Hill Country blues personified. The other is Damion Pearson, and together they burrow directly into that place where you’re gonna feel it without trying too hard. “Who’s Gonna Ride,” the lead track, starts with a gallop, guitar and harp bolting, drums on their way to somewhere with determined purpose. It spends most of its four-and-a-half minutes on Earth restating the title phrase, then, without warning, it shifts to a darker place: “I know you hear me sayin’ I can’t breathe,” ad infinitum, then, “Get cha foot off my neck.” It’s a long way from ye olde “I woke up this morning” blues trope but maybe it really isn’t. “Crossroads” isn’t the Robert Johnson standard—Pearson and Kimbrough wrote all nine of these tracks—but a slinky, funky groover, while “High & Low” is so dusty you may be filled with a desire to take a broom to it. “Look Out for the Wolf,” the shuffle that wraps things up, sneaks up on you slyly. It may be about the four-legged kind, or the Howlin’ variety; you decide for yourself. Only one thing’s for certain—this is where the blues needs to get back to if it’s ever gonna avoid slipping into parody and irrelevance.