Feed My Body to the Fishes and My Soul to the Lord Above

Jack Cook & Marc Breitfelder

Reviewed by Robert Horn

FEED MY BODY TO THE FISHES BUT MY SOUL TO THE LORD ABOVE is a very sound blues CD by Jack Cook and Mark Breitfelder. It was produced in Germany, where there is an amazingly strong interest in blues music. The liner notes area in German. "Jack hat in den Nachten natch den Aufnahme-sessions in Marcs Kuche Geschichten uber die Leute erzahlt, die diese Songs geschrieben haben uber Sleepy John Estes..." If I tried to translate I would appear to be a philistine so I will leave that quote stand as is.

Jack Cook is local to Seattle. Just go to Ballard and ask where Jack is playing tonight and someone will know. Jack always performs great acoustic blues, and both his guitar and voice are always solid. Blues Society members have been fortunate to hear him at a couple of our monthly meetings. This CD is excellent. Every song is raw deep down grab you somewhere only blues can grab you kind of music.

The harmonica playing of Marc Breitfelder was as good as any I can remember. The rendition of "The Work Song" with an emphasis on harmonica was the best rendition of it I have ever heard.

A secondary point about the CD is that it is a visual knock-out. Working for a company that prints high-end wine bottle labels, it reminded me of one. I think I will open a bottle and listen to this CD again tonight.