Dave “Muz” Mercer has always been hard to pin down. Some nights he’s a one-man loop-pedal show. Other nights he’s side-by-side with Josh Pierce in Guns for Hire. He’s backed Chris Ndeti, sat in with Kenny George, and now he’s fronting his own power trio with Jo Bone and JT Smith. And with the Trio, it wasn’t just Mercer on display — it was the chemistry. Think Pantera soaked in turpentine. The layers peeled back, stripped raw, but every now and then a flash of 3 young m

Hurricane Erin was spinning well north in the Atlantic, but she still had Aiken on edge. When I got downtown, the puddles told the story—they’d already taken a soaking. I pulled out the tarps anyway, because nothing keeps the rain away quite li Their set list was a hall of echoes — Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” and “Sweet Home Chicago,” Son House’s “Death Letter Blues,” Elmore James’ “Shake Your Money Maker.” Songs born in the Delta nearly a century ago, but carried forward