NEWSLETTER #130
Blues & Gospel
Blues Kingpins
| As part of their contribution to “Year Of The Blues” EMI has put out a series of six CDs featuring recordings drawn from their vast catalog of vintage recordings including material they own in conjunction with Ace Records in England. Serious collectors will have most of this material already but some of it is making it’s first appearance on on a U.S. CD. They are all have excellent sound, are modestly priced, and are attractively packaged in a digipack format with informative notes by Bill Dahl. |
| FATS DOMINO | Virgin 82742 | Blues Kingpins | ● CD $11.98 |
| 18 tracks, 43 minutes, recommended. With the vast amount of
material owned by EMI, their Virgin offshoot helps celebrate 2003 as "The
Year of the Blues" with this Fats Domino disc, along with five others in the
new "Blues King Pins" series. Part of the attraction for collectors will be
the tracks that haven't been reissued in the U.S. before now. The Domino set
focuses on the earlier part of Domino's career and contains great New
Orleans grooves recorded for Imperial between 1949 and '55 with the Fat Man
in front of Dave Bartholomew's thumping band as they roll through Rockin'
Chair/ Trust In Me/ Domino Stomp and others. Mastering is exceptional
while the entire series has solid liner notes from Bill Dahl. Fats'
beginnings are shown here, especially on the wonderful leadoff track,
Hide Away Blues, and while he became a major star during the 1950s rock
'n' roll craze, he's never strayed far from his roots. (CR) FATS DOMINO: Boogie Woogie Baby/ Cheatin'/ Domino Stomp/ Every Night About This Time/ Goin' Home/ Going To The River/ Goodbye/ Hide Away Blues/ How Long/ Please Don't Leave Me/ Poor Poor Me/ Rockin' Chair/ So-Long/ Something's Wrong/ Tired of Crying/ Trust In Me/ You Know I Miss You/ You Said You Love Me |
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| JOHN LEE HOOKER | Virgin 82741 | Blues Kingpins | ● CD $11.98 |
| 18 tracks, 52 minutes, recommended. John Lee Hooker has been
no stranger to the CD reissue market, literally having a few hundred
(domestic and import) titles devoted to him and his highly rhythmic blues
style, but there are a number of nice surprises here. While Hooker was never
recognized as a polished guitarist, his stark, Delta-rooted, off-kilter
approach took him around the world, starting with his first recording
success, Boogie Chillen in the late 1940s, and continued for decades.
Sally Mae/ Hobo Blues/ Crawling Kingsnake Blues/ Weepin' Willow Boogie/
Howlin' Wolf stand alongside harder to find cuts like Love Money
Can't Buy/ Hug And Squeeze/ The Syndicator the crushing I'm Ready and
more. The recordings here are drawn from his extensive Modern repertoire
recorded between 1948 and 1954. For someone who recorded so frequently,
Hooker's material was almost always of a very high standard. (CR) JOHN LEE HOOKER: Anybody Seen My Baby/ Boogie Chillen/ Crawling Kingsnake Blues/ Hobo Blues/ Hoogie Boogie/ How Can You Do It/ Howlin' Wolf/ Hug And Squeeze/ I Got My Eyes On You/ I Tried Hard/ I'm In The Mood/ I'm Ready/ It's Been A Long Time Baby/ Love Money Can't Buy/ Queen Bee/ Sally May/ The Syndicator/ Weeping Willow Boogie |
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| LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS | Virgin 82740 | Blues Kingpins | ● CD $11.98 |
| 18 tracks, 48 minutes, recommended. Lightnin' Hopkins, like
John Lee Hooker, was another prolific recording artist who recorded for an
amazing list of labels. The eighteen tracks selected here cover a few of
Lightnin's earlier years when he was working for Aladdin and RPM and were
recorded between 1946 and 1950. Some fine acoustic material with Thunder
Smith (Hopkins' nickname stemmed from his teaming up with Smith for the
Thunder and Lightnin' duo) including Katie Mae/ Feel So Bad/ Rocky
Mountain Blues stands with searing electric workouts like Lightnin's
Boogie and the storming Jake Head Boogie loaded with crumbling
and distorted guitar licks. For those unfamiliar with Hopkins' and how
important an influence he was, this is a primer course in Texas blues
guitar. (CR) LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS: Another Fool In Town/ Bad Luck And Trouble/ Black Cat/ Fast-Mail Rambler/ Feel So Bad/ Jake Head Boogie/ Katie Mae Blues/ Last Affair/ Let Me Play With Your Poodle/ Lightnin's Boogie/ Lonesome Dog Blues/ Rocky Mountain Blues (I Can't Stay Here In Your Town)/ Santa Fe/ Short Haired Woman/ Shotgun Blues/ Sugar Mama (Sugar On My Mind)/ Tim Moore's Farm/ Woman Woman (Change Your Way) |
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| ELMORE JAMES | Virgin 82738 | Blues Kingpins | ● CD $11.98 |
| 18 tracks, 50 minutes, recommended. Sometimes quite
mistakenly regarded as a one-lick-wonder with slide in hand, Elmore James
was far more accomplished than that unfair description, and the proof
resides in this budget-priced collection. James took Robert Johnson's
bottleneck style, amplified it to crunching levels, and took Dust My
Broom and blues slide guitar to lofty new heights. Rock My Baby
Right/ Baby What's Wrong/ Sinful Woman/ Dark And Dreary show Elmore's
skills playing standard guitar, and these are smartly interspersed with
plenty of slide showcases like Lost Woman Blues/ Hawaiian Boogie/
Standing At The Crossroads and more. This draws from his recordings made
for Flair and Meteor between 1952 and 1955. While all of this has seen
stateside issue previously, it is a wonderful primer for those new to
Elmore's scorching guitar and passionate vocals. (CR) ELMORE JAMES: Baby What's Wrong/ Blues Before Sunrise/ Can't Stop Lovin'/ Dark And Dreary/ Dust My Blues/ Good Bye/ Happy Home/ Hawaiian Boogie/ I Believe/ I Was A Fool/ Lost Woman Blues/ Make My Dreams Come True/ No Love In My Heart/ Rock My Baby Right/ Sinful Women/ Standing At The Crossroads/ Sunny Land/ The Way You Treat Me |
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| B.B. KING | Virgin 82712 | Blues Kingpins | ● CD $11.98 |
| 18 tracks, 56 minutes, recommended. Unquestionably one of
the most influential performers in the history of blues, B.B. King's
recording career has spanned an astounding seven decades. His trailblazing
guitar style may have followed in the footsteps of T-Bone Walker and many
others, but King upped the ante with unique vibrato and thundering leads,
all of which are front and center over the course of this disc. The tracks
here, recorded for RPM and Kent between 1951 and 1964 were all R&B hits,
including some chart toppers. He offers some broomdusting licks for
Please Love Me, runs between a rumba and shuffle for Woke Up This
Morning, and storms through the hard-to-find Please Hurry Home.
With You Upset Me Baby/ Whole Lotta Love/ Sweet Sixteen/ Got A Right To
Love My Baby and a crumbling solo in Ten Long Years (one of the
ultimate examples of B.B.'s playing), the stakes are high throughout. (CR)
B.B. KING: Bad Luck/ Every Day I Have The Blues/ Got A Right To Love My Baby/ Please Accept My Love/ Please Hurry Home/ Please Love Me/ Rock My Baby/ Sweet Little Angel/ Sweet Sixteen/ Ten Long Years/ Three O'Clock Blues/ Troubles, Troubles, Troubles/ When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer/ Whole Lotta Love/ Woke Up This Morning/ You Know I Love You/ You Upset Me Baby |
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| IKE TURNER | Virgin 82714 | Blues Kingpins | ● CD $11.98 |
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18 tracks, 52 minutes, recommended. Ike Turner has played a remarkable role in the development of modern music from his days of scouting talent like Howlin' Wolf and Jackie Brenston to teaming up with Anna Mae Bullock for the dynamic Ike & Tina Turner. This collection gathers together a great cross-section of styles with piano, guitar, and booting sax thundering behind a wide cast of vocalists. These recordings were made for the Modern group of labels in the early/ mid 50s and includes a number of tracks that have only been reissued on CD before on the hard to get and expensive Japanese P-Vine label. Turner's first wife, Bonnie, duets with Ike on
Looking For My Baby and My Heart Belongs To You, Billy Gayles tackles
Night Howler, and Dennis Binder steps up for Early Times and
Nobody Wants Me. Johnny Wright's The World Is Yours is exceptional and there's Johnny 'Big Moose' Walker's
Can't See You Baby with Ike's careening whammy bar guitar. The set includes some instrumental guitar workouts including the fascinating 8 1/2 minute
All The Blues, All The Time where Ike plays a medley of blues favorites of the time emulating the styles of Matt Murphy, B.B. King, Elmore James and others and the muscular
Prancing. For the low pricetags, the new “Blues King Pins” series offer great value for the buck. (CR)
DENNIS BINDER: Early Times/ Nobody Wants Me/ BILLY GAYLES: Night Howler/ CLAYTON LOVE: Why Don't You Believe In Me/ LOVER BOY: Love Is Scarce/ The Way You Used To Treat Me/ IKE TURNER: All The Blues All The Time/ Cuban Get Away/ Cubano Jump/ Go To It/ Loosely/ Prancing/ Trouble And Heartaches/ You're Driving Me Insane/ IKE & BONNIE TURNER: Looking For My Baby/ My Heart Belongs To You/ JOHNNY “BIG MOOSE” WALKER: Can't See You Baby/ JOHNNY WRIGHT: The World Is Yours |
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