Chris Yakopcic (pronounced “Ya-cop-sick”) was born in Pittsburgh and is now is based in Dayton, Ohio and plays guitar in a style influenced both by the pre-war Mississippi Delta blues and the gentler fingerpicking approach of the Piedmont area. His voice is warm and relaxed on this, his second album, recorded in Dayton but mastered at Ardent Studios in Memphis.
Most of the eleven songs are original compositions, but the four cover versions are instructive. Throughout the album Chris is accompanied by a subtle rhythm section of Leo Smith on bass, and Brian Hoeflich on drums, but his own playing is probably enough to carry most songs - lend an ear to his takes on Robert Johnson’s ‘Preachin’ Blues’ and ‘Phonograph Blues’ (Chris gets a little too emotional on vocals on the latter though) – though they do flesh out the sound, and they certainly add a lot to Mississippi Fred McDowell’s driving ‘Write Me A Few Lines’, allowing Yakopcic to improvise freely. Leonard Cohen’s ‘Tower Of Song’ is a very, very pleasant surprise, treated almost like an Appalachian holler and it works well – very well indeed.
Of the originals, ‘Smallman Street’ documents the beginnings of Chris’s love affair with the slide guitar, and ‘Sounds Of The Highway’ shows just how well he has appropriated traditional elements, both musical and lyrical, into his own song-writing. ‘Addicted’ has a more modern arrangement than most of the other tracks here, and lyrics that are almost (deliberately) non-blues in their concerns, whilst the album closes out with the gentle Americana of ‘My Last Three Strings’. Thoroughly enjoyable and listenable, this is a set that sneaks up on you.
Norman Darwen