Cutting Time

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Summary: An interesting journey into the Chicago Blues scene
Review: Dunn's novel is a great look into the Chicago blues scene of the 1960's. The story centers around hotshot gunslinger Willie Lee Reed. Reed comes to town full of confidence and enthusiasm but soon finds out he has a lot to learn. Soon he befriends a white college student who loves the blues more than school and two diverse women.

Much of the book centers around Cutting Sessions, guitar competitions where the old masters take on all comers. Reed is full of flash and style, but does not have the soul and inner feeling to knock off the champion.

Dunn obviously has a vast knowledge of the blues and mixes his fictional characters into the real Chicago blues scene. Reed is one part Hendrix, one part Robert Johnson, but later on finds himself sharing a stage with Hendrix. Days seems to be a composite of various Chicago Bluesmen, but at the same time there are references to Muddy Waters and B.B. King.

No blues novel would be complete without a bit of the supernatural and Cutting Time is no different. Dunn takes the standard tale of bluesman sells his soul to the devil and turns it on its head. Reed's devil is within, his own past long buried. Dunn only drops hints of the depths of the darkness and we never really see the results of Reed tapping into this. Reed also draws power from a strange little religious book that seems to hint that his true talent comes not from the Devils, but from somewhere else. In fact, Reed's encounter with the dark arts sets him back and almost ends in disastrous consequences.

It is very hard to describe music with mere words. That task is even tougher when trying to describe music as passionate as the blues, but Dunn does a very nice job. He balances the difficult job of being almost poetic with his description of the music, but never bogs it down with too much description. In fact the whole novel is written in a manner that is very vivid, but never loses itself in self-indulgent prose.

While Cutting Time is very much a music story, it is also a book about being an outsider. You have the obvious racial overtones of Chicago in the 60's, but you also have white characters living in a black world. Individually, Reed is an outsider and the new stranger in town, while both his love interests are also outsiders in their own right.

Cutting Time is an enjoyable read. Dunn creates enjoyable cast of characters and throws in just enough surprises to keep you guessing. In many ways the book reads like the first of many stories about Reed, so it will be interesting to see where Dunn takes it.

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Summary: Cutting Time Comments
Review: The second in Robert Dunn's musical novel series, Cutting Time's setting is the 1963 Midwestern electric blues scene. Guitarist/singer/songwriter Heddy Days is the reigning champ of a waning but still intense blues tribe. Willie Lee Reed, a flashy, charming young guitarist, comes down from Detroit to challenge Days for his undisputed blues lick crown. As the book starts, we're watching the ensuing cutting contest between the two gunslingers through the eyes of Josh Green, a quasi-folklorist white college student. Josh meets Esmé Hunter, Day's daughter from Detroit, and watchs the contest with her. She leaves stirred by the young guitarist, and Josh leaves realizing he may have just seen the Next Big Thing.

Despite Reed's flash and fireworks, the master slays the challenger with a single, devastating note. Though chagrined and intimidated by the contest, Reed is courted into recording by blues impresario "Sweet Home" Arthur for the Poker label. He makes a record that should be the next blues classic. Instead the record falls flat, due to twists of fate and bad business and luck. Reed then goes to Gary with Josh and Esmé, laying down a small but intense crowd-winning show. He wins the attention of the glamorous witchy-woman Betty Ann "Silver" Norton, and the record promoter she lures talent for. Silver has been sent to seduce and capture the young firebrand for her boss/pimp's label.

Dunn gives his central bluesman character a twist. In the army Reed had discovered a book of Buddhist-esque philosophy. He lives a self-imposed celibacy. He responds to Silver's potion-wielding seduction by going near catatonic. His is not the best state to be in to seize the blues crown from Days.

Will Reed recover and have another shot at Days and the crown? What will he learn from a jam night alongside young Hendrix -- and what will Hendrix learn from Reed? I won't spoil it for you, but aside from delving into the rich music scenes of the setting, Cutting Time is well worth checking out purely for its qualities as a novel.

Rating:
Summary: Cutting Time Comments
Review: The second in Robert Dunn's musical novel series, Cutting Time's setting is the 1963 Midwestern electric blues scene. Guitarist/singer/songwriter Heddy Days is the reigning champ of a waning but still intense blues tribe. Willie Lee Reed, a flashy, charming young guitarist, comes down from Detroit to challenge Days for his undisputed blues lick crown. As the book starts, we're watching the ensuing cutting contest between the two gunslingers through the eyes of Josh Green, a quasi-folklorist white college student. Josh meets Esmé Hunter, Day's daughter from Detroit, and watchs the contest with her. She leaves stirred by the young guitarist, and Josh leaves realizing he may have just seen the Next Big Thing.

Despite Reed's flash and fireworks, the master slays the challenger with a single, devastating note. Though chagrined and intimidated by the contest, Reed is courted into recording by blues impresario "Sweet Home" Arthur for the Poker label. He makes a record that should be the next blues classic. Instead the record falls flat, due to twists of fate and bad business and luck. Reed then goes to Gary with Josh and Esmé, laying down a small but intense crowd-winning show. He wins the attention of the glamorous witchy-woman Betty Ann "Silver" Norton, and the record promoter she lures talent for. Silver has been sent to seduce and capture the young firebrand for her boss/pimp's label.

Dunn gives his central bluesman character a twist. In the army Reed had discovered a book of Buddhist-esque philosophy. He lives a self-imposed celibacy. He responds to Silver's potion-wielding seduction by going near catatonic. His is not the best state to be in to seize the blues crown from Days.

Will Reed recover and have another shot at Days and the crown? What will he learn from a jam night alongside young Hendrix -- and what will Hendrix learn from Reed? I won't spoil it for you, but aside from delving into the rich music scenes of the setting, Cutting Time is well worth checking out purely for its qualities as a novel.