HYPNOTIC HEMPHILL

You’d expect folk blues to be the province of scholars these days, but singer-guitarist Jessie Mae Hemphill proved otherwise in a powerful 45-minute set Saturday at the Blues Unlimited club in the Crenshaw district. The Mississippian comes from a family of musicians and her finger-picked electric guitar, unusual time changes and wailing vocals placed Hemphill firmly in her home state’s blues tradition. The closest reference point for pop fans would be early Muddy Waters songs like “Rolling Stone” and “Two Trains.”

Hemphill and second guitarist David Evans created a hypnotic brand of blues full of foreboding and made rhythmically compelling by John Boudreaux’s tasteful drums fills. There was little musical variety, and no fresh images or themes in the lyrics, but the toughness of her music more than compensated. If this gig had occurred 20 years ago, Bonnie Raitt would have been sitting at Hemphill’s feet raptly soaking up every note.