The Ladies Man CD

Red Vinyl – ltd. to 300

Orange Vinyl – LAST COPIES

This is no music for the precious and wanky-fedora-headed-claptonite-bloozers who whine about sht being out of tune and wring their hands over a guitar being japanese-made. This is primal jankety-ass rattlin’ and buzzin’ raw music. Sounds like they used some boxes and tubs for drums. It ain’t right. But the blues ain’t right. Never has been. Never will be. Thank gawd. It’s flawed. This album got did as it ought to be done. By feel and vibe. And that’s why I love it. And why I dig T-Model Ford and all the cats that backed him up on this album. They did it up right. Like an apple on a tree. – T-Model Ford Is Coming To Kick Your Asses / DEEP BLUES
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For this album, Ford sat in with a full band in a studio, and in spite of the fact that he seems more like a street corner brusker, the results are amazing. In between songs, the conversations between T-Model and the others are left in, and give the impression that even some of these guys were amazed at their luck in playing with a man this legendary. Barring a plan to travel to Greenville, Mississippi to look up T-Model Ford, Alive records has captured an intimate look into the music of the man, and is certainly the next best thing. – Amy Randall / Round The Dial
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“If I see your woman, she better have a stamp on her.  ‘Cus if she ain’t got no stamp on her or she comes ’round me looking sad or mistreated man … well. If she Flag my Train, I gonna Let Her Ride”.  The words of T-Model Ford – “The Ladies Man” – a man who lives life like it is – a man whose blues reflect this simple and basic approach to life. 
A man who on “I Was Born In A Swamp” doesn’t even know his birthdate but admits to being a “June-bug”.
A man who didn’t start playing guitar until he was 58 years old – and then, inspired by his recollections of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, started performing, warning many of Mississippi’s finest blues singers “I’m Coming To Kick Yer Asses”.
A man who boasts “I had a woman on every corner” – a “Ladies Man”.
A man who halfway through the recording cries out “It’s Jack Daniels time”.
A man whose music epitomises the description “Gutbucket Blues”.
Ford is joined on this set by Dustin Arbuckle (harmonica), Stefan Zillioux and Aaron Moreland (guitars) with Martin Reinsel and Starr Harris (percussion) – musicians who support Ford sympathetically, providing a canvas for his “bucket of blood” approach to the blues.
The main influence on Ford’s music is Muddy Waters but spiced liberally with elements of North Mississippi Hill Country Blues – his lyrics borrowed from the blues canon and spliced together in Ford’s own unique way.
On “Two Trains” he turns Muddy Waters into a Sludge Pool – his rough hewn vocals underpinned by moaning harp and slide.  On “My Babe” and “That’s Alright” he makes Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers sound almost operatic as he takes them way down into the gutter.  “Love Me All Night Long” is liberally laced with Muddy styled machismo as he shouts out “Whoah Yeah” repeatedly – whilst “Sallie Mae” had better beware as Ford asks her menacingly “Where you been so long?”
Throughout this set Arbuckle provides wonderful lowdown harp – the use of brushes by the two percussionists fits Ford’s music like a glove – whilst the guitar backing is often ramshackle but just right. – Michael Rainsford / Blues In Britain
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More eccentric than innovative, Ford revisits riffs and motifs well-known in both Delta and Chicago blues. But he has an advantage over ’30s performers, who were limited by the three-minute running time of 78-rpm records. Ford stretches out, driving such tunes as "Chicken Head Man" and "Hip Shaking Woman" past the six-minute mark. The guitarist slips, lurches and churns until the groove becomes hypnotic. T-Model Ford may not be an originator, but when he bends a song like taffy, he twists it into a shape that is his alone. – Mark Jenkins / Washington Post
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The Ladies Man is Mr. Ford’s seventh record, and it’s a good one for a couple reasons. Of course, the man himself is in rare form, his primitive yet evocative playing providing the perfect backdrop for his oh-so-familiar tales of woe and infidelity. With no second takes, no overdubs and negligible production values, this is as bare bones as music gets. Mr. Ford’s younger accomplices wisely remain in the background lest there be any questions as to whose show this is. The warts-and-all feel of the record greatly benefits from Mr. Ford’s skill as a storyteller, particularly in the rambling I’m Coming To Kick Yer Asses. Between gutshot blues numbers, the octogenarian singer bemoans his illiteracy, chronicles his introduction to his instrument at age 58 and explains that he’s unsure of his true age because two women stole his driver’s license. Seriously. And in between all that talking, he even finds some time to sing some of the low-down dirtiest acoustic blues you’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, including the number that is sure to become his calling card, Chicken Head Man. So what are you waiting for? Get the record from Alive and be there when he comes to town, because like Mr. Ford says. "It’s Jack Daniels time!". – My Old Kentucky Blog
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T-Model Ford plays The Blues. Not that boring white-guy-with-a-guitar-pretending-to-be-Clapton-and-Hendrix stuff either. Instead, Ford plays a chugging and galloping version of Delta Blues. This isn’t gentle music; this is the pure stuff that Beefheart drew inspiration from.
On The Ladies Man, Ford presents his songs as raw as they come. Recorded over a three hour session with minimal backing musicians, this album is Ford’s blues stripped to its essence. Gone are the chord progressions that wrap around the blues riffs and shapes most listeners know. Instead, the songs are built around the stuttering fills. This is jerky blues that you have to pay attention to.
Throughout the disc, Ford comes across as an engaging entertainer and storyteller, often making his asides and non sequitors just as entertaining as the songs. – Fuzztone Magazine
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Everything about T-Model Ford (born James Lewis Carter Ford) seems to come right out of the blues legend playbook. First of all, no one, including T-Model himself, know how old he is, though he’s probably around 90. He served time for murder and allegedly arranged for another murder to take place while on the chain gang. He didn’t begin playing guitar until he was 58, and as he tells it on his newest record, The Ladies Man, within a week women were leaving their husbands to come hear him play the blues. T-Model Ford resides in Mississippi, birth place of the Delta blues, and can be found picking the blues in all sorts of backwoods blues joints and bars. And as legend has it, he once played an eight-hour set in one of them. You can’t make this stuff up. T-Model Ford may be the truest and bluest bluesman still picking the six-string.
Though recording this album for a new label, Alive Records, Ford’s blues style still falls into the dirty, greasy Southern category. He has clearly been influenced by Delta bluesmen like Robert Johnson as well as the Chicago blues stylings of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Ford keeps things traditional here with his acoustic guitar but there’s plenty of harmonica and drums adding color to the background in these songs. The songs collected here consist of blues classics like Muddy Waters’ “Two Trains” and Little Walter’s “My Babe” as well as new versions of some of Ford’s own songs like “Chicken Head Man.”
The most intriguing thing about this record is that it sounds like a documentary film. Ford will play a blues song (often with a light, loose backing band) and the recordings sound like live studio performances. And after many of the songs, Ford will talk or someone in the studio will ask him questions about his life which he answers– sometimes humorously– before playing the next song. “I can’t read, can’t write, can’t spell what I love,” he declares at one time and you’ll swear it’s the blues-iest thing you’ve ever heard. It gives the record a live, warm feel and makes it almost immediately welcoming.
T-Model Ford proves he still has some of that legendary stamina here as well. These ten songs (and one spoken track) clock in at just under an hour and five of them pass the six-minute mark. The nearly eight-minute opener, “Chicken Head Man,” is something to behold. Ford gets in the blusey groove early on and neither hell nor high water and going to get him out of it. Perhaps his fellow musicians were having trouble keeping up with the 90-year old because he calls out during the middle of the song, “come on, white boy,” which elicits laughter in the studio. It’s little touches like this that make The Ladies Man feel less like a record and more like a live blues show in your living room.
Frankly, I wasn’t aware that there were old bluesmen around still making music like this. So it comes as an encouraging surprise to stumble across a record as welcoming and classic-sounding (in a good way) as this one. T-Model Ford is an old man, his words aren’t always discernible and he occasionally fumbles through his blues licks, but this only adds character and charm to what is the best traditional blues record I’ve heard in quite some time. The Ladies Man’s structure begs us to view T-Model Ford as a living legend, and after spending some time with these old-fashioned blues songs and Ford’s larger-than-life blues persona, it’s a hard claim to deny. – Tone Marrow
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Even with a full band to back him, T-Model Ford’s music is raw, stripped-down to its primal roots, informed by the Delta and influenced by the Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf songs that Ford heard as a kid. Mash it all together and you have a sound as unique as any bluesman to rise up out of the Mississippi backwoods. The Ladie’s Man showcases a collection of solid country blues as old as the style itself but owing allegiance to no one single influence. As Ford himself says, "I didn’t borrow from nobody, I went after ‘em…." – Reverend Keith A. Gordon / Blues About.com
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T-Model Ford at the Deep Blues Festival – Photo by Peter Lee

While this impromptu, one-take approach sometimes results in an overall sameness to the sound, it also gives it an incredibly intimate, first-person feel. If you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall in a recording session, here’s your opportunity.
This includes T-Model riffing between songs on his undetermined birth date, who he listened to as a young player and giving shout outs to Jack Daniels, evidently a close personal friend given Jack’s placement in photos, on his hat and in his patter. A bluesman on first name basis with Jack Daniels; who would of thunk it?
As solid and dependable as his name-sake, T-Model Ford shows all the young guys (like the 60 year olds) how it’s supposed to be done on The Ladies Man. Long may he run. – Carl Hanni – Blurt
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"You’ve got to use yourself in happiness," he says. "I’m happy with my life, like I’m living. The ladies treat me nice, and the men treat me nice, too. Nobody wants to fight, so I’m happy with it." – Read T-Model Ford’s interview for The Memphis Flyer
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"Yeah, I played the acoustic on this one. But I still love my electric," says Ford. "I just go around, and if I hear a sound and I want to play it, I’ll play it." – T-Model For interview with Go Memphis
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Scads of stories and plenty of picking in that authentic Mississippi Blues form from someone who’s seen a lot of history. This has the feel of a friendly field recording ALAN LOMAX style. A lot of soul is wrung from a cheap guitar over the course of this nearly hour’s worth of rappin’ and playin’. – Pirate Cat Radio
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The tracks all take a laid-back approach — not too fast, not too slow, and every one overflows with the spirit of deep blues. "Love Me All Night Long" rocks just enough with both music and attitude. This track ends with some spoken asides: "I’m the boss of the blues, baby," and "I’m a ladies man." Both times a sweet woman’s soft voice answers, "I know you are." I know, it’s not exactly Romeo and Juliet, but the surprising intimacy of the remarks feels just right … just like the blues should feel.
There are three cuts of Ford just talking between takes, riffing on his past — "I was born in a swamp" — and his libation — "It’s Jack Daniels time." I normally don’t care much for these musical interruptions, but it seems to work here. Ford’s ramblings sound like blues without the music.
Bluesmen like Ford, and his music, are a national treasure. If that’s not enough of a reason to buy and listen, then the great music will be. This is blues from the original mold. Enjoy. – Jim White / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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T-Model Ford’s "The Ladies Man" has an endearing quality. It’s simply nice to know there’s still legitimate blues musicians actively making music. What’s more, you can hear the love that T-Model Ford has for the blues. The unpracticed, spontaneous nature of "The Ladies Man" adds that much more character. And that’s something you just can’t fake. – Plug In Music
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Facing down his 90th year (no one, including him, is sure of his exact age), Ford’s seventh and arguably best record is his first all acoustic set. Cut in one day in Wichita, Kan., in 2008, with minimal accompaniment from sometime backing band GravelRoad (Ford split with longtime partner, drummer Tommy Lee “Spam” Miles, some years back), the session has none of the raucous punk energy with which he’s identified. Instead, he delivers warm, assured, and playful performances of old blues standards by Muddy Waters and Little Walter, and his own compositions, including the signature “Chicken Head Man.” – Mark Jordan / Go Memphis
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If the biggest blues names from Chess Records’ heydey had hopped a Greyhound, hightailed it out of Chicago and returned to the South, their records might have sounded a lot like those T-Model Ford has turned in the past decade or so. To drive the point home, the ornery eightysomething Mississippi singer-guitarist and raconteur regularly retrofits signature tunes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter, sonically slipping them out of sharkskin suits and into bib overalls. Performed in the studio much like his legendary two hours-plus sets, with minimal accompaniment and a freewheelin’ attitude, The Ladies Man is Ford at his just-let-him-go best. He breaks the action here and there to tell a quick tale to the crew that serves as both backup band and audience. Aside from classics by the aforementioned legends, Ford includes his own de facto theme song "Chicken Head Man." Maybe it’s because playing music is so "new" to the man — he was nearly 60 when he began — but a country-blues sound this genuine and this alive in this century is the longest of long shots. — Duane Verh / Cleveland Scene
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T-Model Ford isn’t nearly ready to retire : interview for Charlotte Creative Loafing
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T-Model Ford drives Delta blues to Somerville : interview with The Somerville Journal
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On The Ladies Man, T-Model Ford comes off more than ever as a living testament to the sustaining power of the blues. Pushing 90 (though his exact age is a bone of contention), Ford had just experienced severe heart problems and had a pacemaker installed when he recorded the album, but to say he sounds full of life here would be an understatement. It doesn’t hurt that Ford was recorded in the optimum manner to capture his real, raw Mississippi sound — he laid down these tracks live in the studio, accompanied with just the right amount of looseness by members of his frequent backup band GravelRoad and others, in one session, with no overdubs or second takes. Snatches of his conversations with the musicians are interspersed between some of the tracks, filling in the picture with even more vivid colors; he reminisces about being inspired to play by the music of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, enthusiastically shouts "It’s Jack Daniels time!" (an album photo shows him happily hoisting a bottle of Jack), and instructs the band to "Let it all hang in, don’t let it hang out." Playing tunes associated with Muddy Waters ("Two Trains") and Muddy’s right-hand man Little Walter ("My Babe"), and revisiting quirky original tunes he has recorded in the past like opening cut "Chicken Head Man," Ford brings to bear his rough-and-ready vocal style and forceful acoustic fingerpicking with an intensity that suggests a performer a good few decades younger. Ford first came to fame during the ‘90s heyday of Fat Possum Records, alongside Mississippi hill country contemporaries like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, but at a time when many of his peers have died off and even Fat Possum has embraced rock over blues, Ford’s first studio album for a new label shows him to be not just a survivor, but a solid rock supplying a living, breathing foundation for his brand of blues. – J. Allen / All Music Guide
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It’s hard to imagine a more fitting origin for a bluesman than not knowing your exact birthdate. To think you might have been born in 1920 or possibly 1922, and to have begun your commercial career as a bluesman in your early seventies, is to echo a hard life that included pre-teen plow work behind a mule, blue collar jobs in lumber and truck driving, and enough scrapes with the law (including a string on a chain gang) to lose count of the years. Ford isn’t a product of blues music so much as his delta blues is the product of a life that began in the deep, segregated south of Forest, Mississippi. Ford’s recording career began in the mid-1990s with a string of albums for Fat Possum. His songs are built on repetitive blues progressions and lyrics that often seem made up on the spot.
Ford’s latest, on the Alive label, was recorded live-in-the-studio at the end of one of his infrequent tours. Ford plays acoustic guitar and sings, with some younger players following along quietly on guitar, harmonica and percussion. His picking is solid, but what’s especially impressive is his voice. There’s a weathered edge to his tone, but his pitch is surprisingly sharp. Not sharp for an 88-year-old (or so) man; just sharp. He reprises the originals “Chicken Head Man” and “Hip Shakin’ Woman,” and blues classics from Roosevelt Sykes (“44 Blues”), Willie Dixon (“My Babe”), and Jimmy Rogers (“That’s Alright”). The informal recording session, planned at the last minute and plotted on the fly, finds Ford edging into each song as the mood and memory strike him. Two interview tracks further flesh out the character of this one-of-a-kind bluesman. – Hyperbolium
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He’s backed on this all-acoustic outing by a batch of younger musicians who are clued in enough to Ford’s aesthetic to keep things on the loose-and-gritty side, letting the rough side drag as the main man lays into tunes that combine the styles of his native Mississippi Delta region with a Chicago blues influence (Mississippi-born Chicago king Muddy Waters’ “Two Trains” is one of the highlights here). In between songs, T-Model’s banter with the band adds just the right juke-joint party feel to this live-in-the-studio session. – Limewire
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Liked this album from the moment I heard it–a traditional blues album filled with homespun tales, blah blah blah–and was puzzled when I saw its low-to-middling review grade on Amazon! Then I read the reviews and saw they were all talking about a Flamin’ Groovies bootleg! Another career killed by the Internet! – Dave DiMartino / New This Week
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Recorded in a small studio in Wichita, Kansas in about three hours with a small group of young players who mostly just stay out of Ford’s way, The Ladies Man concerns, as always, love and the lack of it, and by love, we mean humpin’ and bumpin’. Ford hasn’t the haunted threat of Junior Kimbrough, the unrestrained (snake) drive of RL Burnside or the burning intensity of Robert Belfour – he’s a lover first and foremost, and if he can’t have fun doin’ “it,” why do it at all? I Love You Baby, That’s Alright and Hip Shaking Woman do the thinking with the little head, crooking their fingers with Ford’s distinctive (sour) mash-up of undisguised lust and eyebrow-cocked dignity. Ford tips his baseball cap to his peers and forebears as well, giving tunes from the catalogs of Muddy Waters (Two Trains), Little Walter (My Babe) and Lightnin’ Hopkins (Love Me All Night Long, AKA Rock Me, Baby) a turn with his husky pipes. With stories and commentary interspersed betwixt the tunes, The Ladies Man has the relaxed feel of an informal jam session, a vibe that works to Ford’s advantage in emphasizing good times and a friendly atmosphere over tortured souls and visiting hellhounds. – Michael Toland / Sleazegrinder
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You gotta listen to his guy. He’ll kill ya. In this case that’s literally true. There’s the murder T-Model Ford paid for on the chain gang and the ones he says he did and got away with like the hippie couple he allegedly ran down with his truck because he said they were in his way when he came out of his driveway. When he’s not busy killin’, drinkin’ or womanizing, T-Model puts on eight-hour shows in backwater Mississippi delta juke joints. Recent tours with Buddy Guy and appearances at SXSW have brought him national recognition, but he still glories in his backwardness. "I can’t read, can’t write, can’t even spell what I love man," he says on the spoken word segment, "I’m Coming to Kick Your Asses." The self-taught guitarist first took up the instrument at 58 and, now at 84, bangs away at it somewhat respectably aided by frequent belts of Jack Daniels. "In a week’s time I was playing this sonuva gun," he brags. "I had them guy’s wives leavin’ home." His playing is somewhat pedestrian, thumping along on "44 Blues" as a ragged tribute to Wolf. But what he lacks in technique he makes up with swagger. "That’s Alright" is the best cut on the record, with Ford sounding like he’s been gargling swamp water laced with razor blades. – Grant Britt / Creative Loafing
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This spontaneous, let-it-rip-and-move-on way is typical of T-Model Ford‘s style. He doesn’t sound like he is in a hurry, but he also doesn’t seem to want to waste time on what he’s already said. Ford likes his blues, his women, his money, and his late-in-life fame. You’d think an acoustic record from a blues man would be a bit risky, but most likely he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way — or given a shit if anyone else did. – Mike Wood / Prefix Mag
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Acoustic blues played by 88-year-old blues veteran T-Model Ford along with young harmonicat Dustin Arbuckle, guitarists Stefan Zillioux and Aaron Moreland, and percussionists Martin Reinsel and Starr Harris. It was recorded, according to the insert, mostly in one take, with T-Model strumming and remembering and the younger folks joining in as arrangements coalesced. The music is somewhat repetitious and the songs sound similar to each other in structure, but the recorded studio banter indicates the session was big fun for the participants. It’s also preferable to most of the clones playing polished electric blues. Highlights include “My Babe,” “I Was Born in a Swamp” and the general air of joy that permeates the whole project. Blues fans need to grab this one. – Sun Herald
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Blues Is Job One : interview with T-Model Ford for The New Haven Advocate
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His real name is James Lewis Carter Ford. That almost sounds like a prominent American name but in fact it belongs to a Mississippi Delta blues man that goes by T-Model Ford. He was sentenced to 10 years hard labor for which he served only 2 years. The Ladies Man is a throwback to old Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf albums where they spoke and told tall tales in between songs. The gravelly voiced blue man takes us back to the day where blues was but a small sector of the industry. T-Model Ford is obviously not going after radio play with this CD. If you love hard, Delta blues, then this album will be among your favorites. – What’s Bluesdaddy Listening To?
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Gonzai (France) interview with T-Model | Playing Out Loud review (UK) | Les Inrocks (Fr)
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THE LADIES MAN : On July 22, 2008, James "T Model" Ford stepped into Planet Paul Studios in Wichita, KS at the end of his first formal tour in years. Rumors of his demise had been laid to rest after two weeks of T Model’s performing his raw, rough, & tumble blues. T wanted to play acoustic guitar and have 100% control over the record, so everyone agreed he should do it the way he wanted. The engineer simply let the tapes roll & T Model made it look easy. One song after another just rolled out of him.
"The Ladies Man" is the product of this afternoon session in Wichita. This is pure T Model, with some newer young musician friends playing along with him. It is also the only acoustic album T has ever recorded and it’s a blast. "I don’t have a care in the world," T Model would remark occasionally. He’d back it up by taking time in the studio to sip Jack Daniels from his flask and tell "blue" stories or tales of his life’s hardships to his new set of listeners. At 88 years old, he appeared younger and livelier than many folks a fraction of his age and this amazing record is the proof.