Al King Was a Blues Master

It has been three decades since Al King briefly flirted with chart success with his evocative Think Twice Before You Speak. Frustrations with the record industry led the Louisiana native to foreswear recording, although he has obviously had a change of heart. The Rochester, New York Forevermore label has just issued his first new recordings in near thirty years, It‘s Rough Out There, which follows up the label‘s 1996 compilation of many of King‘s classic recordings, Al King Blues Master, The Complete Sahara and Shirley Recordings.

As related in the notes to Blues Master, King (who was born Al K. Smith) grew up on the big bands and Jimmy Rushing was a particular favorite. After finishing his stint in the Service, King moved to San Francisco in 1947, eventually moving to LA where he first recorded for John Dolphin‘s Recorded in Hollywood label in 1951. In 1953 he recorded as a member of the Savoys for the Combo label. Around this time he hooked with Johnny Otis and performed for Otis’ review for a few years before recording two of his compositions, My Last Letter and On My Way
for the Oakland based Music City label with the studio band led by a 17 year old Johnny Heartsmen.

Eventually moving to San Francisco, he recorded for Bob Gedddins‘ Irma label at the same time falling under the musical spell of Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin. He in fact became friends with McCracklin, touring and recording with him. It is his voice that is the second voice on McCracklin‘s hit, I Just Got to Know, and he recorded with a female singer as Al and Nettie an answer song, Now You Know. “While the recording did not establish his name, it enabled him to meet Ron Badger, owner of the Shirley label.

With Shirley, King made perhaps his best known recording, a terrific rendition of Lowell Fulson‘s Reconsider Baby that has been anthologized in part because of the presence of Johnny Heartsmen‘s guitar. This was the flip side of On my Way,“ a reworked version of his earlier recording that opens Blues Master, which features King‘s bittersweet vocal against a lively, brassy backing that is propelled by charged rhythmic playing from Hearstman. His other single for Shirley is a terrific Lingerin‘ Love with some splendid lyrics backed by a dance number Shimmy & Shake.

Then King started his own label, Flag for which he recorded the stunning Think Twice Before You Speak, a moody slow blues with menacing lyrics about the graveyard being full of people who talk too much and while he‘s not a dentist, he‘d be happy to remove one‘s teeth for free. It was coupled with Heartsman‘s uptempo The Winner,“ and it was successful enough that it was picked up by the Buffalo based Sahara label for which King waxed another four singles including the marvelous My Money Ain‘t Long Enough, about his woman who spends all his money and gambles just like a man so that even though he‘s working a full time and part-timeime job, it just ain‘t enough for her. With a morose delivery akin to McCracklin and Fulson, he hammers the lyrics home as Hearstman‘s guitar lines run in and around his vocal. While Fulson has recorded Think Twice Before You Speak, and Phillip Walker‘s most recent album, it is surprising that this song has not be similarly revived. The rest of this album is of a similar quality, other songs reflecting his similar morose view of human relationships, along with a terrific cover of Lloyd Glenn‘s Blues Shadows. The album concludes from a 1968 recording, Get Lost, “where he cleverly incorporates the lyrics of his songs. There are plenty of great blues in a vein that anyone that loves the McCracklin and Fulson blues of this period will want.

While he may have sworn off recording, King has remained active performing, and obviously continuing to write new material. Three decades later he has returned to the studio producing It‘s Rough Over Here, backed by a young group the Sugarbees who may not provide him with the subtlety and suppleness of Heartsman‘s playing and arranging skills, but generally acquit themselves quite well. Of the ten songs here, only Peoples in the Graveyard“ was a familiar song, originally recorded as My Name is Misery. Here King recounts just how many ways he is bad off before the tagline, “My Name is Misery, peoples in the graveyard are better off than me.”

The title track has him recounting the ills of modern urban life and how he wished he could move away from the corner drug sellers and the drive by shootings. He is a bit more assertive on Ain‘t Giving Up Nothing, telling his woman that there relationship has to be a give or take relationship. Sweet Jimmy‘s Place represents a change of pace, while the cynicism of You Can‘t Trust Nobody should be obvious from the title. Its amazing how much like Fulson he sounds like today, and shares with Fulson a deliberate, laconic singing attack with the same appealing sound. It‘s Rough Over Here is a release that will be welcomed by those who have wondered to him. It will also make him among the obvious choices for blues comeback artist of the year, and one might expect several of these songs to become new blues classics.

I wrote this review back in 1998 when these releases were issued. I believe it originally appeared in the DC Blues Calendar. Since I originally wrote this, I heard the original of Ain‘t Giving Up Nothing, so it was another song Al King had recorded previously. I believe I received a review copy from the label. These show up as still being available. 

Neglected Blues Gems From Al King and Arthur Adams Are Together

The late Al King was one of those singular West Coast blues singers who never received the general acclaim his small body of recordings merited. In the later part of the last Century, Forevermore Records had the first reissue of King’s recordings for the Shirley and Sahara labels and followed by new recordings. Unfortunately, despite the excellence of his blues, both old and new, he passed away before he could capitalize on their release. King, real name was Al K. Smith, is best known for a couple of recordings with guitarist Johnny Heartsman. One was a terrific version of Lowell Fulson’s Reconsider Baby, while the other was the memorable Think Twice Before Your Speak, which Fulson is among those who subsequently recorded.

King was a veteran of the California music scene when he made these and other recordings, having recorded for such legendary record men as John Dolphin, Johnny Otis and Bob Geddins. He initially issued Think Twice on his own Flag label, and when a Buffalo Sahara Records wanted to order 2000 copies, he leased it to them and had a brief association with that label after the urban blues charted at a time when few blues entered the record charts. After his Sahara deal ended, he moved to Los Angeles where he signed with Kent-Modern records for sessions that were produced by the legendary Maxwell Davis. These recordings have been reissued by the English Ace label along with contemporaneous recordings by Arthur K Adams, Together: The Complete Kent and Modern Recordings.

The pairing of the two on a reissue makes sense, insofar as Adams was session guitarist for many of the blues productions Davis did in the late sixties for Kent-Modern records including sessions for B.B. King as well as Al King. Saxophonist Big Jay McNeely is mentioned in the liner notes as being on many sessions for Davis and the late Clifford Solomon remembered playing on sessions as well. The music tight with brassy horns and Adams throwing in sizzling guitar breaks. Al King himself was an outstanding singer as well as songwriter. A couple of lyrical fragments illustrate this. The opening My Name Is Misery, has this powerful verse,

“I don't have no money
And I can't even pay my rent
If you put a money dog on my trail
He wouldn't even scratch a scent.”

While his The Thrill Is Gone (set to the melody of “The Things I Used To Do”) has these lyrics,

“The thrill is gone
The thrill I used to have for you
The thrill is gone
The thrill I used to have for you
Now you're beggin' me to take you back
Lord, but ain't a darn thing I can do.”

He is stark about relationships on Aint Givin’ Up Nothin’, a hot shuffle where he sings about when one has friends one has plenty of friends but when one runs out of money, friendship ends, and things are a give or take situation, what do you have to offer to me with a booting tenor sax solo. Then with Adams playing hard chords against an insistent beat he sings that married life is all right, but sometimes it is Better To Be By Yourself, with Adams taking a relentless solo. It’s Getting Late, is a solid blues in a vein similar to contemporaneous Kent recordings by Lowell Fulson. Then there is “Get Lost” a diatribe against an ex-lover which incorporates the titles and lyrical fragments from his prior 45s as hAdams puts everything into his solo. The body of Al King’s Kent recordings is on the same level as his Shirley-Sahara recordings and thankfully these are now currently available from Ace as opposed to a hard-to-fine, expensive Japanese reissue.

While Al King was a veteran, guitarist Adams was a relative newcomer to the LA scene and his rhythm guitar helped beef up B.B. King’s recording of The Jungle. In fact, Arthur’s picture of him with a guitar was used for the cover of Kent’s album “The Jungle,” a fact I was unaware of until I read Tony Rounce’s notes in the accompanying booklet. He is represented by sessions from late 1966 or early 1967. She Drives Me Out Of My Mind, is a slow B.B. King style blues with a high tenor vocal that is not far removed from Ted Taylor with a touch of sixties Buddy Guy along with some real strong guitar playing. On the other hand, I’m Lonely For You, is more in the vein of the recordings of Impressions with a fine vocal and some nice guitar. A couple of duets with female singers are again more in a sixties soul than blues vein, but nicely done with Adams displaying a strong soulful singing style.

As Tony Rounce writes in the accompanying booklet, both King and Adams “deserved far better fame than these records bought them 40-odd years ago … .” While in some case, 45 rpm singles had to be used as opposed to the original tapes, sound is generally quite good and Ace’s packing and production is of its typical high level. The result is an important reissue of two powerful, if neglected blues artists (although thankfully Adams is still with us and continuing to make strong, original music).

This was a purchase. Here is Al King's recording of Ain't Givin' Up Nothin.

Here is a little bit of Arthur Adams in performance.

Al King's lyrical magic

Al King has been gone for several years but he produced a small body of blues recordings that endure because of his wonderful sober singing (often in bands with the likes of Johnny Heartsman playing on sessions) and his marvelous lyrics.

Here are some lyrical fragments:

From My Name Is Misery

I don't have no money
And I can't even pay my rent
If you put a money dog on my trail
He wouldn't even scratch a scent

Or how about his The Thrill is Gone (melody from Things I Used to Do)

The thrill is gone
The thrill I used to have for you
The thrill is gone
The thrill I used to have for you
Now you're beggin' me to take you back
Lord, but ain't a darn thing I can do

There was a reissue of all of Al King's recordings, including his most famous song, Think Twice Before You Speak. Unfortunately it and a new album by him I believe are both out-of-print and he shortly passed on. Pea-Vine has a reissue West Coast Modern Blues 1960's Vol. 3 that includes 8 tracks by Al King along with selections by Willie Headen and King Solomon. The notes may be in Japanese, but the liner booklet dos include lyrics in English and while expensive (It is an import after all), the music, especially by Al King, is first rate. I believe it is available from bluebeatmusic.com.