Welch, Leo – Sabougla Voices – New LP

Produced by Bruce Watson
Recorded and Mixed by Bronson Tew and Bruce Watson at Dial Back Sound - Water Valley, MS - Summer 2013

Martha Conley & Laverne Conley - The Sabougla Voices
Andrew Bryant - Drums and Organ
Eric Carlton - Piano and Organ
Jimbo Mathus - Guitar
Matt Patton - Bass & Guitar
Bronson Tew - Bass

Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering

Born and raised in the hill country of Mississippi, gospel blues guitarist and singer Leo Welch didn't make his professional recording debut until he was 82 years old, by which time he was pretty much the last in a line of vernacular Mississippi guitarists. A multi-instrumentalist who played guitar, fiddle, and harmonica from the time he was a child, Welch worked in lumber camps for more than 30 years, bringing his steamy, trance-like, gritty blues to picnics, rent parties, and juke joints during his spare time. After his conversion to evangelical Christianity, Welch developed an iconic, raw, hybridized gospel blues. He signed to Fat Possum's Big Legal Mess imprint in 2013 by telling the label that if he was allowed to record his Sunday morning gospel album, he'd deliver the label its other side on his second offering: juke joint blues from Saturday night. Big Legal Mess went for it: Sabougla Voices was acclaimed globally for its rough and rowdy joy, enabling the artist to tour and even become the subject of a European film, Late Blossom Blues. Welch's second album, I Don’t Prefer No Blues, delivered on his promise and charted in several countries. Welch died at age 85 just before Christmas in 2017. That said, he was able to enjoy the reception Late Blossom Blues received as it toured the festival circuit. 2017 witnessed the release of the documentary Late Blossom Blues – The Journey of Leo “Bud” Welch, a moving account of a hard-working man, who, despite all the adversaries, never wavered from his passion and waited more than 70 years to finally live his dream. Welch had once said, Right now is a great point in my life. I’m doing things I’ve never been able to do before and I feel good doing them at an age when a lot of people are dead. So as long as I can I want to go around the world trying to send satisfaction to people. Doing that is a great feeling to me."