Mark Lemhouse's debut release delivers string-strangling, gut-rocking blues ecstasy. Lemhouse reaches into a wicked toolbox - containing resonator chainsaw, electric tube-amp machete, and bottleneck auger - to uproot blues tradition with a vandal's glee. Recorded to analog tape with vintage mics at Easley/McCain Studios in Memphis, Big Lonesome Radio has a gritty feel that's more akin to a Howlin' Wolf or Jimmy Reed than a young man playing the blues in the 21st century has a right to sound. Melding together influences from Delta blues, Piedmont rag-style forms, and North Mississippi trance blues, Lemhouse's notes come across like crackling radio transmissions from a time gone by.