The Mighty Mojo Prophets are the bi-product of Long Beach, California. I’m talking about the old Long Beach which lives and breathes in their music. It is the Long Beach that lies about halfway between the Ashgrove and the Golden Bear. The Prophets are where Big Bill Clarke meets Big Joe Turner.

The LBC is a big, bustling, working class port city that struggles, and mostly succeeds, to hang onto its soul. That soul inhabits the Mighty Mojo Prophets and their music.  They are ensconced in the spirit that lived in Lamar’s Record Store on North Atlantic Ave. You remember Lamar’s. It was the town square for everybody, but the town’s squares. It was a real life oasis of cool that for twelve years quenched the thirst of blues lovers who darkened its door.

The Mighty Mojo Prophets‘ Record Store is an oasis as well. In a world full of watered down, blues-light, the Prophets present us with fifty five minutes of unapologetic, straight ahead natural blues. All the thirteen original tracks have a gritty, greasy sound born out of various blues dialects, but all bear the personal stamp of vocalist Tom Eliff and guitarist Mitch Dow.

This is the third album released by this pair of kindred spirits under the Mighty Mojo Prophets banner. It may very well be their best. This is pretty extraordinary considering how high they set the bar on their previous two studio outings.

Eliff and Dow are joined by long time Prophet, Dave Deforest on bass. Tom Richmond plays diatonic as well as chromatic harp. Long time Long Beach blues stalwart Mike Malone plays piano and organ. The drummer is Al Ricci.

The Mighty Mojo Prophets have created a true ensemble sound where even the endlessly tasteful guitar of Mitch Dow doesn’t push the other players out of the mix. For their part the blues harp of Richmond and keyboard of Malone work with a wonderfully sympathetic chemistry which screams that all important, yet often ignored concept of “song before solo.” The rhythm section of Deforest and Ricci lays down a fat groove wide enough to float a massive cargo ship through and provide enough anchor to park it in the port of Long Beach.

Then there is Tom Eliff. He sounds like everything you like about a great blues singer and yet doesn’t sound like anyone but himself. His delivery never sounds forced or contrived. He has interesting stories to tell and knows exactly how he wants to tell them. It is what makes his songs come alive and breathe fire.

With Record Store, the Prophets have achieved a most elusive, yet coveted sound. They are originals and still maintain both feet firmly planted in the rich soil of the blues. They make traditional blues without being directly derivative. Record Store is not a rote recital of a blues time capsule or someone else’s idea of what the blues should sound like. It is real. It is personal. It is in the moment and it is for all time.

Record Store sounds like you are walking down Long Beach Boulevard late at night between the King Taco and The Blue Café. The music comes at the listener with just the right pace. It has a confident, self assured swagger, without the blustery cockiness that mars so many contemporary blues albums. Without missing a beat and without a care in the world, the music swings right past that alcove in which two dudes are down to their last cigarette and 40 ounce bottle of Colt 45.

Like blues at its finest, Record Store confronts humanity straight on and regardless of how tough a battle, one is redeemed for having been through the experience. That’s Mojo baby. That’s the Mighty Mojo Prophets and their latest release, Record Store.

Record Store receives my highest recommendation and is an early contender for BLUES JUNCTION’s Album of the Year.