Record Label: Alligator Records
Genre: Blues

Chicago’s foremost bus-driving bluesman (though he thankfully was able to give up his day job) is back with some hot takes on some old classic themes: love, lost love, the blues, found love, with some social consciousness tossed in for good measure.

Things kick off with some serious fire, as Cannon sings on “Can’t Fix the World”: “I can’t fix the world right now, I gotta play these blues.” If you can’t fix it all, you might as well rock out in the meantime. Preach, bluesman! “I Hate Love” is an excitingly angry, bluesy lament for anyone who has ever been rejected (and who hasn’t?), and “Him” continues the angsty tour of spurned love. For a change of pace, the gospel-inflected “Had to Go Through It to Get to It” is in the best tradition of the Black spirituals, with themes of struggle and overcoming them as best as able. “Something to Do Man” turns up the temperature (as if it weren’t already hot enough this summer!) with Cannon singing about a lover who wants “something” done at her house; it’s a hilarious song that matches wits with Cannon’s gut-busting tune “Insurance” from a few years back. Sample lyric: “Booty call, boy toy, I’m only here for her joy.” From the sublime to the serious we go on “Message to My Daughter,” in which Cannon’s narrator offers an apology to his progeny amid a rather messy divorce—with the message essentially being “It’s not your fault!” “Unlovable,” “Guilty” and “Got Me By the Short Hairs” are all pretty standard blues fair (though that’s certainly not a complaint), but then Cannon has a definite surprise in store with “My Woman Loves Me Too Much,” played out on acoustic guitar and harmonica—thus getting back to the blues’ roots in the Delta. It’s part of a late-album turn into more meditative territory, with the angst-infused “If I’m Always Wrong” immediately following. The album is capped with the titular “Shut Up & Play!”, which takes yet another stylistic turn into quasi-metal territory—but listen closely and you’ll realize that, beneath its sonic influences, this is a searing protest song in the grand tradition that asks some burning questions (remember “shut up and dribble”?). “No 40 acres for my family,” he sings, “that America promised us when they set us free.” Doubtless Spike Lee will be calling.

What’s great about Cannon’s output is that he consistently tries out new sounds and takes his compositions in novel directions. “Shut Up & Play!” is front-to-back goodness, with a little something for everyone. Catch him on the road this summer, and tell the Chicago bluesman we sent ya!

Notable Tracks: Can’t Fix the World, I Hate Love, Had to Go Through It to Get to It, Something to Do Man, My Woman Loves Me Too Much, Shut Up & Play!
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