Downhome Sophisticate

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Robert Christgau	A−[10]
Ottawa Citizen	[11]
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide	[12]

Robert Christgau noted that the "rock-type poetry ... makes like social conditions are as real as love and dreams."^[10] The Washington Post stated that "on 'Santoro', which concerns social injustice and racial profiling, Harris vents his frustration in a voice that rises just above a whisper to ask: 'So why you figure they be so jumpy on the trigger. So quick like that, to assassinate black?'"^[13]

Bass Player called the album "a revelation—a nasty, Old School blues album with tinges of boogie-woogie, African soul, hip-hop, blazing yet sensitive slide guitar, and pristine production."^[14] The Commercial Appeal thought that the album "shows that one can embrace roots and still be forward looking ... Rarely has traditional sounded more modern."^[15] The Ottawa Citizen opined that "this definitely isn't for your 12-bar, hard-core crowd, but for those who're a little more interested in where the blues and grown-up R&B might be headed in the not-to-distant future."^[11]

AllMusic wrote that "it's an easy leap for Harris from folklore to urgent urban settings; his depiction of a police car as a fearsome, prowling Biblical beast makes 'Santoro' especially disturbing."^[9]

1. "Giddyup" - 0:18
2. "Frankie Doris" - 2:52
3. "Money on My Mind" - 3:31
4. "Don't Let the Devil Ride" - 2:10
5. "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning" - 2:53
6. "Capitaine" - 2:06
7. "Santoro" - 2:36
8. "Fire on the Radio" - 0:27
9. "Fire" - 5:09
10. "BB" - 2:18
11. "Downhome Prelude" - 0:09
12. "Downhome Sophisticate" - 3:17
13. "Sista Rose" - 6:28
14. "Black Maria" - 4:32
15. "Chinook" - 2:30
16. "Money Eye" - 4:04
17. "Where the Yellow Cross the Dog" - 1:53
18. "F'shizza (Santoro Remix)" - 5:40