Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Critics' Choice
1999 Down Beat Magazine International Critics' Poll: Blues Album of the Year 1999 Living Blues Magazine Crtitics' Award Winner: Best Blues Album of the Year - All Categories Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year Most Outstanding Blues Guitarist of the Year These critics already know what everyone else needs to discover. Hart is a diamond in the rough.
Rating:  - When you are expecting gold, silver is a dissappointment.
The reviewer above captured my sentiments exactly. There are some fine moments in this disc, but some others that are out of place and of little musical appeal. The album confirms his talent; he needs to refocus to maximize same.
Rating: - Uncharted ....
Territory is an excursion into Alvin Youngblood Hart's adventure with music. Hart born in Oakland in 1963, uses music to discover the adventures in life and to weave common threads to connect his lifetime and history to the his influences and experiences. Although Hart was raised in Oakland he spent his Summers with his grand parents in the hill country of Northern Mississippi and while there he developed an appreciation for the countryside, learned to ride horses and learned about the diverse musicians and music of the Mississippi Delta. He was introduced to the work such musicians as Charlie Patton, Skip James, Ledbelly and Bukka White. His parents exposed him to the more recent blues of Jimmy Reed, BB King and Jimmy Witherspoon. Growing up in the 60's and 70's he was influenced by Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones.Alvin Youngblood Hart is an impressive sight. He stands nearly 6'6" and weighs 250. He wears his hair in long dread locks and clothing of choice are flannel shirts and blue jeans. Watching him on stage is a rare treat. He is a skillful musician and vocalist who willingly takes chances and avoids being pigeonholed. How many blues musicians would choose to do a song as Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, composed in the 1920's by song writing team Al Dubin and Joe Burke, who are also known for "Tiptoe through the Tulips?" Territory is indeed an adventure covering many different song styles and influences from rock to country to folk to blues to psychedelic. This has been a rap against the cd by those who would choose that Hart be pigeonholed into only doing acoustic blues which he did so eloquently on Big Mama's Door. Thankfully he is willing to take chances and has presented us with this album which is expanding and enlightening to the listener. Territory is a mixture of original songs, Tallacatcha, Ouachita Run, Sallie Queen of the Pines, Countrycide, Just About to Go, Underway at Seven, Traditional Blues songs, Mama Don't Allow, John Hardy and Skip James' Illinois Blues, and psychedelic, Captain Beefheart's Ice Rose. The cd would be worth the price for the haunting song set in minor keys, Countrycide. Countrycide is a story of how Charlie and Ed Brown "used the injustice system to their complete disadvantage." The song starts :
"We have seen some dark days in the history of man
Tell you bout Saint Patrick day when the stuff hit the fan." and finishes
"We have seen some dark days in the history of man
Broken hearts, stolen lives and tales of stolen land." The cd gets underway with Tallacatcha an original which the listener might want to foxtrot to. Alvin plays both lap steel and electric guitar on this and is accompanied by piano, fiddle and bass. Tallacatcha is a Choctaw word meaning "river of pearl." Hart sings, "Everyone knows her name ain't Rose, They all call her Tallacatcha." The cd ends with Underway at Seven, which is an instrumental with echoes of the Rolling Stones. Hart works solo, once more playing the lap steel and electric guitar. It is a fitting end to the album, a sleepy slow song with beautiful notes leisurely weaving throughout.
| 
