For those unaware, visionary guitarist Ryan Lee Crosby buckled his 1980s Tascam 22-4 four-track portable reel-to-reel tape machine into the back seat of a borrowed 2012 Toyota Venza, bracing it with towels on either side.

He was about to leave his Portsmouth, RI home for the Blue Front Cafe, a juke joint founded in the 1940s in Bentonia, MS. The resulting new album At the Blue Front comes out August 20th, 2025 via digital, CD and cassette.

Crosby’s music has already positioned him as a major new guitarist in the blues and American Primitive styles, earning spotlights from Guitar Player, Aquarium Drunkard, WBUR, Smithsonian Mag and so many more.

1. Going Away
2. I’m Gonna Change
3. I’ve Been Worried
4. Mistreating People
5. Hard Times
6. Catfish
7. Slow Down (Part 2)
8. Tell Me

Produced and recorded and mixed by RLC, this mindfully sculpted new recording opens on the deep down and harmonica-driven gold of Going Away and then we get the organically-hued I’m Gonna Change, the effective foot tapping rhythms of I’ve Been Worried and the dredging blues of Mistreating People.

Recorded at the Blue Front Cafe, Bentonia, Mississippi, along next is the low slung, harmonica-imbibed Hard Times which is itself backed by the melodic hipsway of Catfish, the set rounding out on the impassioned Slow Down (Part 2), coming to a close on a heartfelt grasp of Tell Me.

Musicians:
Ryan Lee Crosby - 12 string guitar and vocals
Grant Smith - calabash and percussion
Jay Scheffler - harmonica

Ryan Lee Crosby - I’ve Been Worried [Analog Field Recording, Blue Front Cafe]

Official Purchase Link