19-07-2018 12:58 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1989-1978

Charlie Musselwhite

19-07-2018 12:58 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1989-1978 # Charlie Musselwhite, Henry Gray, Snooky Pryor, Chris Thomas King, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray, Pee Wee Crayton, ZZ Top, Hound Dog Taylor, Robin Trower, Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan, Tom Waits, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmy Johnson

B L U E S   M U S I C

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1989-1978

A Mississippi transplant whose rangy, subtle harp playing made a splash in Chicago blues circles beginning in the 1960s. Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they both stand out as being especially faithful to the style.
Charlie Musselwhite
If Trouble Was Money (D.A.R.) 5:21
It Ain't Right (Walter Jacobs / Little Walter) 3:59
Finger Lickin' Good (Charlie Musselwhite) 4:0
from Memphis Charlie 1989
Charlie Musselwhite earned the nickname “Memphis Charlie” during his years in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned to play guitar and blues harmonica. Moving to Chicago in 1962 to look for better-paying work, Musselwhite jumped into the blues scene, becoming a regular at blues venues, sitting in and playing with some of the great musicians of the Chicago scene. This album, released in 1989, contains songs recorded in 1971 and 1974 that feature the electrifying blues vocals and harmonica of Memphis Charlie.

This harmoinca player's records were harbingers of the amplified, down-home sound of post-war Chicago blues.  Only recently has Snooky Pryor finally begun to receive full credit for the mammoth role he played in shaping the amplified Chicago blues harp sound during the postwar era. He's long claimed he was the first harpist to run his sound through a public address system around the Windy City -- and since nobody's around to refute the claim at this point, we'll have to accept it! James Edward Pryor was playing harmonica at the age of eight in Mississippi...
Snooky Pryor
Broke and Hungry (Snooky Pryor) 2:36
Judgment Day (Snooky Pryor) 4:16
Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy / Charles Segar) 2:55
from Snooky 1987
An outstanding comeback effort by Chicago harp pioneer Snooky Pryor, whose timeless sound meshed well with a Windy City trio led by producer/guitarist Steve Freund for this set. Mostly Pryor's own stuff ... with his fat-toned harp weathering the decades quite nicely.

Initially known for his audacious fusion of blues and hip-hop, Chris Thomas King reached a whole new audience with the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, not only appearing on the award-winning soundtrack but playing a prominent supporting character as well. Despite the much-celebrated, down-to-earth rootsiness of O Brother's music, King had previously been a determined progressive, hoping to reinvigorate the blues as a living African American art with a more contemporary approach and adamantly refusing to treat it as a museum piece whose "authentic" forms needed careful preservation. King eventually modified that approach to a certain degree, attempting to create a more explicit link between blues tradition and the general musical present.
Chris Thomas King
The Blues Is Back 3:37
Cheatin' Women Blues 4:38
Going Home To Louisiana 3:43
South Side Shuffle 1:45
from The Beginning 1986
Recorded at Reel To Reel Sound Factory - Baton Rounge, La.

Albert Collins - The embodiment of the Texas blues guitar style, with non-standard tuning and slashing blocked chords. 
Johnny Copeland - An influential blues guitarist since the 1950s, journeyman hit critical paydirt in the 1980s. 

Robert Cray - The guitarist who brought blues back to the charts in the '80s via songs that defined blues themes but added modern and personal twists. 

Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray
T-Bone Shuffle (T-Bone Walker) 4:58
The Dream (Unknown Blues Band) 5:32
Blackjack (Ray Charles) 6:34
from Showdown! 1985
More cooperative than competitive in spirit, Showdown! ranks above other blues ‘supergroup’ sessions in the cohesiveness of the music, as three of the top names in blues of the 1980s shared the spotlight with a tight rhythm section in support. There were still plenty of hot guitar licks, though, from Collins, Cray and Copeland, with Albert even taking a turn on harmonica. T-Bone Walker’s T-Bone Shuffle provided a common ground for the triumvirate to kick the album off, and the rest of the program consisted of originals and lesser-known covers of Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, Texas legend Hop Wilson and others....

Highly accomplished blues guitarist whose career blossomed during the late '60s blues boom.  Although he was certainly inexorably influenced by the pioneering electric guitar conception of T-Bone Walker (what axe-handler wasn't during the immediate postwar era?), Pee Wee Crayton brought enough daring innovation to his playing to avoid being labeled as a mere T-Bone imitator. Crayton's recorded output for Modern, Imperial, and Vee-Jay contains plenty of dazzling, marvelously imaginative guitar work, especially on stunning instrumentals such as "Texas Hop," "Pee Wee's Boogie," and "Poppa Stoppa," all far more aggressive performances than Walker usually indulged in.
Pee Wee Crayton
Blues at Daybreak 3:02
Early Hours (Instr.) 4:33
When I'm Wrong (B.B. King) 7:51
from Early Hour Blues / Rec. August, 1983 & December, 1984 (1999)
A West Coast blues guitar hero, Crayton died shortly after these sessions, done primarily with Rod and Honey Piazza's band, or with jazz pianist Llew Matthews' quartet. The two dates show Crayton could do it all. Jump blues, hard or straight blues, and boogie were all easily played. It's that unmistakable T-Bone Walker influence, a stinging, swinging single line or chunky, chortling chord progressions that made Crayton stand out among the crowded blues guitar landscape. He was a one-of-a kind player, and this CD is not only his final testament, but a solid exclamation point on the career of a true American music legend...

Texas trio that specialized in down-and-dirty blues-rock during the '70s, then scored colorful MTV hits during the 1980s. 
ZZ Top
Gimme All Your Lovin' (Frank Beard / Billy Gibbons / Dusty Hill) 4:01
I Need You Tonight (Frank Beard / Billy Gibbons / Dusty Hill) 6:18
from Eliminator 1983
ZZ Top had reached the top of the charts before, but that didn't make their sudden popularity in 1983 any more predictable. It wasn't that they were just popular -- they were hip, for God's sake, since they were one of the only AOR favorites to figure out to harness the stylish, synthesized grooves of new wave, and then figure out how to sell it on MTV...

Alligator Records, Chicago's leading contemporary blues label, might never have been launched at all if not for the crashing, slashing slide guitar antics of Hound Dog Taylor. Bruce Iglauer, then an employee of Delmark Records, couldn't convince his boss, Bob Koester, of Taylor's potential, so Iglauer took matters into his own hands. In 1971, Alligator was born for the express purpose of releasing Hound Dog's debut album. We all know what transpired after that.
Hound Dog Taylor
Ain't Got Nobody (Hound Dog Taylor) 3:30
Blue Guitar (Hound Dog Taylor) 3:38
Crossroads (Traditional) 2:22
from Genuine Houserocking Music 1982
With Alligator label prexy Bruce Iglauer recording some 20 or 30 tracks over two nights everytime the band went into the studio, there were bound to be some really great tracks lurking in the vaults and these are it. Noteworthy for the great performance of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads," (previously only available as a Japanese 45) but also for the "rock & roll" inclusion of "What'd I Say" and Brewer Phillips' take on "Kansas City." No bottom of the barrel scrapings here.

One of rock's prime guitarists, due to his uncanny ability to channel Jimi Hendrix's blues-psych, Fender Strat-fueled playing style. Throughout his long and winding solo career, guitarist Robin Trower has had to endure countless comparisons to Jimi Hendrix due to his uncanny ability to channel Hendrix's bluesy/psychedelic, Fender Strat-fueled playing style.
Robin Trower
Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan
Into Money (Robin Trower) 2:56
Life on Earth (Jack Bruce) 3:42
End Game (Bill Berry / Peter Buck / Mike Mills / Keith Reid / Michael Stipe / Robin Trower) 5:11
from B.L.T. 1981
It wasn't until the 1980 Victims of the Fury album, seven years into his solo career, that Robin Trower would employ former Procul Harum bandmate Keith Reid to provide lyrics (with Reid probably the only lyricist in history to get band status). Though this is officially a Robin Trower release entitled B.L.T., the marquee giving Jack Bruce and Bill Lordan equal heading above the double-sized name of Robin Trower, the project is shouldered by all talents involved and inhibited by a dreadful cover photo of a white bread sandwich: bacon, lettuce and tomato with -- if you look closely -- raw bacon. All concerned would have been better off titling this a Jack Bruce/Robin Trower project with drummer Bill Lordan...

Robin Trower

A neo-beatnik songwriter who grew weirder and wilder in the '80s, earning a cult following that only grew larger as the years passed.  In the work of American songwriter Tom Waits, swampy blues, Beat poetry, West Coast jazz, Tin Pan Alley, country, 1930s-era cabaret, and post-Civil War parlor songs meet neon-lit carnival music, and the wheezing, clattering, experimental rhythms (often played by makeshift musical instruments from car radios to metal pipes and tin cans -- hence his love of Edgard Varese and Harry Partch) form a keenly individual musical universe.
Tom Waits
Heartattack and Vine (Tom Waits) 4:50
Downtown (Tony Hatch / Tom Waits) 4:44
'Til the Money Runs Out 8Tom Waits) 4:25
from Heartattack and Vine 1980
Heartattack and Vine is Tom Waits' seventh and final album for Asylum. As such, it's transitional. As demonstrated by its immediate predecessors, 1978's excellent Blue Valentine and 1977's Foreign Affairs, he was already messing with off-kilter rhythms even in the most conventionally structured blues and jazz songs, with nastier-sounding guitars -- he plays a particularly gnarly style of rhythm on this entire album. Five of these nine tracks are rooted in gutbucket blues with rock edges and primal R&B beats. By this time, his singing voice had deteriorated to a gasping-for-breath whiskey-and-cigarettes growl that could make words indecipherable from one another, but his jazzman-inspired phrasing more than compensated... In sum, Heartattack and Vine reveals just how much Waits had grown during his tenure with Asylum. Though not perfect in sequencing -- the alternating juxtaposition of rowdy blues and heartworn ballads gets old -- almost every song stands on its own as a dusty gem.

Texas band that kept the flame alive for roadhouse blues, led by singer/harpist Kim Wilson and, early on, guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.  With their fusion of blues, rock & roll, and R&B, the Fabulous Thunderbirds helped popularize roadhouse Texas blues with a mass audience in the '80s and, in the process, they helped kick-start a blues revival during the mid-'80s
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Wait on Time (Kim Wilson) 3:03
Pocket Rocket (Kim Wilson) 3:27
Rock With Me (Kim Wilson) 2:38
from The Fabulous Thunderbirds 1979
Their debut album, with the original lineup of Wilson, Vaughn, Buck, and Ferguson stompin' through a roadhouse set of covers and genre-worthy originals. One of the few white blues albums that works.

Chicago guitarist Jimmy Johnson didn't release his first full domestic album until he was 50 years old. He's determinedly made up for lost time ever since, establishing himself as one of the Windy City's premier blues artists with a twisting, unpredictable guitar style and a soaring, soul-dripping vocal delivery that stand out from the pack.
Jimmy Johnson
'Long About Midnight (Jimmy Johnson) 7:10
Tobacco Road (John D. Loudermilk) 6:03
Sweet Little Angel (B.B. King) 5:23
from Tobacco Road 1978
Recorded "live" at GOLDEN SLIPPER 345 S. Pulaski on October 19th, 1977
Bass – Ike Anderson
Drums – Dino Neal
Guitar – David Matthews, Jimmy Johnson
Vocals – Jimmy Johnson