CLUCK OLD HEN A Barnyard Serenade 1926 ... - Red Lick Records

RED LICK RECOMMENDS HOT NEW RELEASES!
...reviews continued from page 2
LOUISIANA RED
The Blues For Ida B Session -
Chicago 1982
JSP DVD - JSP5801
Little Boy, Nothing But A Gypsy Man,
Love Me True, I Wonder Why, Love Me
Mama, This Little Letter, Grease Me
Baby, Nothing But The Blues, Sitting
Here Looking, Chicken Licken, Blues
For Ida B.
I remember going to see Louisiana Red in
concert at Newport Leisure Centre in the
mid-1980s, probably only a year or two
after this session was captured. It may be
that Red just had a rare off-night or perhaps
I was out-of-sorts myself, but my over-riding memory
of the evening was leaving a little disappointed. Who
knows, it may just be that a leisure centre in south-east
Wales does not register as an ideal venue to be presenting
a bona-fide American blues legend, but I doubt
it. I’d seen Joe Louis Walker there about the same
period and my memory tells me that he was pretty good.
Since then I have always been a little ambivalent about
Louisiana Red, even when confronted by some excellent
CDs. Thankfully, this DVD helps dispel any lingering
doubts, featuring our guy on an hour long performance
of impressive blues, variously played on acoustic and
electric guitar, both with and without the use of a slide.
It is in fact a very good thing that Red is able to capture
and keep our attention by himself for the duration of this
performance as the setting he is placed in can only be
said to be sparse - as far as it is shown, it is just him, his
guitars and a series of microphones. The camera work
sustains a focus on his singing and playing but rarely, if
ever, leaves him to provide any broader context or
ambience, If there is an audience in the studio for his
playing this is not made clear, but this is of course of no
real matter as the singing, playing and occasional verbal
introductions to songs keep you glued to proceedings.
He may not have been the most original country blues
artist but he clearly offers here an exemplary snapshot
of what was, even in 1982, a disappearing breed. It is
also a nice touch that before some of the numbers, he
speaks warmly about friends and influences that have
helped contribute to his development as a musician.
B.B. King and Mississippi Fred McDowell both get a nice
name check. I think both would approve of this performance
and its release here.
Ask for JSP5801
This DVD only £11.45 plus p&p here at Red Lick
—0—
WORK HARD, PLAY HARD, PRAY
HARD
Tompkins Square 3CD - TSQ2776
Allen Brothers, Fiddlin’ John Carson, Earl Johnson,
Darby & Tarlton, Georgia Crackers, Gid Tanner,
North Carolina Hawaiians, Dixon Brothers, Tennessee
Ramblers, Alfred G. Karnes and more.
Another stonking release from Tompkins Square, this
box houses 3 CDs full of magnificent early and very rare
country music recordings between 1923 and 1936.
Thematically complied into the ‘work’, ‘play’ and ‘prayer’,
each CD is a treasure trove of unheard of, and barely
known, recordings from a diverse array of artists, many
of which were working their way towards successful
recording careers and reputations (some of which survive
to this day) as well as other
artists who are little known and
promptly vanished from view.
As always with Tompkins
Square, the re-mastered sound
quality is highly impressive. This
would seem to be quite a feat
given that many of the sides
included were taken from the
only 78s version known to still
exist. Indeed, many of these
sides were rescued only hours
before being sent to the ‘dump
for trashing’ (apologies for the
Americanisms) as the collector
who had carefully accumulated them had recently
passed away and his family had no idea of the treasure
contain therein - the kind of story of folklore from the
days when blues, jazz and country record
collecting was in its infancy but a barely
conceivable story in this day and age, I
would have thought.
And with more than 40 wonderful slices of
raw and authentic rural country music
comes a handsome 52 page booklet with
essays, artist profiles and track details.
If you’ve bought Tompkins Square before
you only need us to confirm that they once
again meet their own high standards. Which
of course we can. Thoroughly recommend.
Ask for TSQ2776 - on offer at a special
review price of only £26.25 plus p&p until
22 February
—0—
PHILLIP WALKER
The Bottom Of The Top/
Someday You’ll Have These
Blues
Floating World CD -
FLOATM6173
Tin Pan Alley, Laughing & Clowning,
The Bottom Of The Top, Crying Time,
Part Time Love, El Paso Blues, If We
Can Find It & more.
It’s great to see what Floating World
and their partners are doing these days, finding soughtafter,
out-of-print albums by prized bands and musicians
and re-issuing them as two-for-the-price-of-one CD sets.
We have previously reviewed great releases in the
series from The Blasters, Robert Nighthawk and JB
Hutto, and on page 2 of this catalogue, Hot Club Of
Cowtown.
This excellent set features a couple of early 1970s
albums from a revered but seriously under-recorded
blues guitarist and singer. Phillip Walker was perhaps
one of the missing links between guitarists who made
their names and reputations in the late 1950s and 1960s
(such as Otis Rush, Albert King, Fenton Robinson, Long
John Hunter, etc) and the generation that
followed, most successfully Robert Cray, Joe
Louis Walker and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Like
many, he was originally from Texas but moved
to the West Coast before teaming up with
producer Bruce Bromberg for these albums.
The first is actually a collection of sessions
recorded over a three year period in different
studios and with a variety of musicians. Not
surprisingly it lacks some cohesion but it has
plenty of highlights, with Walker singing and
playing on a nice set of (mostly) covers.
The second album is a more unified affair,
with better production and a more settled
band. Walker himself sounds more confident in his
abilities and stamps more of his own personality, and
more of his own songs, on proceedings. The singing is
crisp, the guitar tighter than previously and the incorporation
of horns by Bromberg a delight. A great two-fer!
Ask for FLOATM6173 - on offer at special review
price of £8.45 + p&p until 22 February.
—0—
WYNONIE HARRIS
Rock, Mr Blues - The King & Atco
Recordings 1949-1956
Revola CD - CRBAND19
Sittin’ On It All The Time, A Love
Untrue, Fishtail Blues, Lovin’
Machine, Good Morning Judge,
Destination Love & more.
There are other Wynonie CDs
available worthy of attention but
this wins the vote as my favourite.
First issued in 2007 and now re-pressed and
re-issued, this presents 30 tracks from his
golden period and every one is a winner. As
well as many of his best known and biggestselling
numbers such as Mr Dollar, Bloodshot
Eyes, Lovin’ Machine and Good Morning
Judge, there are also loads of great sides that
don’t get the attention that their qualities merit - just
check out the great lyrics and performance on Just Like
Two Drops Of Water, the full-tilt ebullience of Destination
Love or the cool guitar-driven rhythm of Christina
and you should be won over.
The sheer enjoyment Wynonie brings to his music is
fuelled by his obvious commitment not just to singing
about women, wine and more women but to living the
lifestyle as well. There is hardly anyone I can think of
who is able to convince as well as Wynonie that the
songs he was singing are truly reflective of the life he
was living. Thankfully for us, the life he was singing
about appears to have been one long party, a perfect
synthesis of the blues shouting musical style of his
friend and mentor, Big Joe Turner, the twinkle-behindthe-eyes
of Louis Jordan and the lust for life of Louis
Prima. And the bands he fronted, such orchestras run
by Todd Rhodes and Lucky Millinder featured top notch
musicians and great musical arrangers.
There aren’t enough words that can be
said about the joy and spirit that jump
out of these sides, so if you need a little
something to pep up your mood at any
time, I’d recommend that you keep this
CD within easy reach to sort you out. At
any given time it is guaranteed to put
that ‘cut back in your strut and that glide
back into your stride’ (if I remember my
Tom Waits lyrics as I think I do!)
Ask for CRBAND19 - on offer at a
special price of £8.75 plus p&p until
22 February
—0—
J.J JOHNSON & MILT JACKSON
A Date In New York
Inner City Jazz CD - IC7007
Jay Jay’s Blues, Jerry Old Man, There’s No You,
Indiana, Lullaby Of The Leaves, I’ll Remember April,
Out Of Nowhere, If I Had You, The More I See You.
A handful of jazz CDs fell into my lap the other day from
a distributor that had recently been looking into the back
catalogue of the Inner City label. Each and every one of
these was, in my opinion, excellent but this for me was
the pick of the bunch.
The session was actually recorded
under the auspices of the
Henri Renaud All Stars, variously
featuring Renaud on piano, J.J.
Johnson on trombone, Milt Jackson
on vibes or piano, Al Cohn on
tenor sax, Percy Heath on bass
and Charlie Smith on drums. Each
and every one of these shine
throughout but the star of the
show was clearly Johnson.
The collective spirit and musical
empathy that existed at this session
is immediately evident on the
opening track, Jay Jay’s Blues, almost eight minutes of
swinging jazz that is kick started by Johnson but at
some point gives each player the spotlight as they solo
around the faultless and energetic patterns provided by
the rhythm section of Heath and Smith. The rest of the
session follows suit, allowing everyone an opportunity to
shine across nine tracks that vary
from the lively opener to the
reflectively slow paced There’s
No You, providing some lovely
interplay between Milt Jackson’s
vibes and Johnson’s trombone.
There’s also a splendid showcase
for Jackson’s piano on Lullaby Of
The Leaves and Al Cohn’s sax is
magnificent on Out Of Nowhere.
This is currently my most-played
jazz CD and I show no sign of
tiring of it. Check this out, along
with the other Inner City titles
added to our catalogue, each of
which is be worth casting an eye over. This looks like a
label to treasure..
Ask for IC7007 - on offer at special review price of
only £10.45 + p&p until 22 February
All reviews conceived, written and edited in Cardiff by Red
Lick. All reviews are the copyright of Red Lick Records Ltd
Factual mistakes, errors in judgement and taste, typos, poor
grammar and other botches are Tony’s fault & his fault alone.
RED LICK RECORDS - PO BOX 55 - CARDIFF - CF11 1JT * TEL: (0)29 2049 6369 * EMAIL: SALES@REDLICK.COM
44