This is a review that I wrote in Fall 2006 and published in the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 288). I will be posting other reviews from this batch of reviews every few days in the next couple weeks.
Universal Music on the Verve label has released the second batch of CDs in its series, The Sonet Blues Story.
These sides make available albums from the 1970s that were issued in
Europe on the Sonet label although some were imported in the United
States and some were even issued in the US, as GNP-Crescendo issued The
Legacy of the Blues recordings stateside. This latest batch includes
more from that series along with other albums that Samuel Charters had
produced for Sonet. I will be posting these reviews every few days.
Eddie Boyd, the Chicago pianist-vocalist who is most known for the classic Five Long Years, had become an expatriate in 1965 to escape racism and married a Finnish woman in 1970 prior to recording his album for The Legacy of the Blues series with some Swedish musicians and drummer Ed Thigpen for a solid session.
The opening notes of Lovesick Soul evoke Boyd’s classic before he launches in a nice Chicago blues ably backed with Peps Persson on harp as Christer Eklund adds tenor sax riffs and the rest of the set is a varied set of solid performances. Eklund sounds fine on tenor on I’m a Fool, while Boyd’s skill as a songwriter is present on Kindness For Weakness with Persson on guitar embellishing the vocal with some nice playing, while Black, Brown and White has Boyd confronting the issue of discrimination in a song that updates Big Bill Broonzy’s similar song.
Boyd’s years in Europe kept him out of the spotlight in the US, except for a brief 1986 visit associated with an appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival, but musically fertile. In addition to this welcome reissue (with two alternate takes added), Boyd’s Complete Blue Horizon Recordings, including those with Fleetwood Mac, has been issued and available at specialty outlets.
I likely received my review copy from Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Eddie Boyd performing Five Long Years.
Various Artists
Cadillac Baby's Bea & Baby Records; The Definitive Collection
Earwig Records
This deluxe box set, which contains the recording legacy of Narvel Eatmon (better known as Cadillac Baby), is a labor of love that Michael Frank of Earwig Records spent years producing. The box set contains 4 CDs of blues, doo-wop, gospel, comedy, and even rap along with substantial interview segments with Cadillac Baby with Steve Cushing from a 1983 Blues Before Sunrise radio program. The 4 CDs are housed in a hardback book which reproduces Jim O'Neal's interview with Cadillac Baby from an early issue of "Living Blues" and has O'Neal's update that corrects and updates the information there. Bill Dahl provides biographies, and concise analysis of the blues and other secular music Robert M. Marovich does the same for the gospel recordings. Michael Frank provides an overview of how this box set came about.
There are nearly 5 hours of music and interviews to provide anything other than an overview of some highlights. The interview segments and the printed interview in the book will give you an idea of Cadillac Baby's personality. He was a character. One of the interview segments discusses how he got into music and how he started presenting shows in the south, including one with the Mississippi Sheiks before he came to Chicago and opened a club. He began making records to hopefully make some money from musicians who owed him money and hopefully make some money as well.
A sense of Cadillac Baby's personality can be heard on the opening track, "Welcome to Cadillac Baby's Show Lounge." It originally was on a vinyl LP "Colossal Blues" that reissued some of his 45s on the Bea & Baby and associated labels. Set against the piano of Sunnyland Slim's piano and Willie Williams drums, Cadillac Baby introduces us to a who's who of Chicago radio and blues personalities. There is overdubbed audience noise and clapping. It is followed by two excellent songs by Eddie Boyd with a band that included Robert Lockwood's distinctive guitar. There are ten tracks by Boyd, eight with Lockwood, and two with another group. Boyd is superb as he sings, "The Blues Are Here To Stay." Two songs are remastered with an overdubbed vocal chorus. There are also two songs by L.C. McKinley, whose guitar style is indebted to T-Bone Walker. His band included tenor saxophonist Red Holloway and also backed a vocal group on two selections.
Arguably the biggest record that Cadillac Baby produced was Bobby Saxton's "Try To Make A Living" that was backed by an Earl Hooker instrumental, "Dynamite." These sides also were leased to Chess, who issued them on a Checker Records single. Mac Simmons, as Little Mac and St. Louis Mac, is heard on the most selections. These include "Times Are Getting Tougher," reminiscent of some of Little Milton's recordings of the time, and on fine covers of songs from Junior Parker, Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy Waters. Backing Mac Simmons are such players as pianist Detroit Junior and guitarist Eddie King Milton. Detroit Junior's first recording is present, along with an interview segment where Cadillac Baby tells how he gave the pianist-singer his name.
Detroit Junior was not the only artist whose first recording is heard. Hound Dog Taylor was very much under the influence of Elmore James when he recorded "My Baby Is Coming Home." Sunnyland Slim was another artist who recorded for Bea & Baby, while James Cotton waxed a couple of blues. Lee Jackson's "Juanita" is a powerful modern blues, and he is also heard on a Christmas blues. Other significant Chicago blues artists heard include Homesick James, Andre 'Blueblood' McMahon, Arlean Brown, and Willie Williams. Eddie Taylor and Hubert Sumlin are among the sidemen on these sessions. Also, a tape was found with previously unissued selections by the legendary Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, four of which are reproduced here. Clyde Lasley, best known as a comedian, talks-sings "Santa Came Home Drunk" backed by Lee Jackson and band. He possibly may be on three comedy selections that sound like Amos'n'Andy outtakes. There are some more teen singers, and a rap single produced by Cadillac Baby and Michael Frank before the box set closes with stirring gospel music.
As stated, there is quite a variety of solid blues and other music here. The interview segments with Cadillac Baby are fascinating to listen to, although one suspects some listeners will skip them after hearing them once or a few times. The packaging is superb, and the accompanying book wonderfully illustrated. Michale Frank sought to honor the memory of Cadillac Baby, and this box set certainly accomplishes that. It will also undoubtedly make a wonderful holiday gift for a Blues Lover.
I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the November-December 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 367). Here is Bobby Saxton's "Trying to Make a Living."
If you are thinking about a gift for the blues lover in your life, this public domain 5 CD box set certainly is well worthy considering. With 134 songs from both famous and obscure blues performers, and an 88 page booklet with an overview of the post-war Chicago blues scene and the artists heard, along with a full sessionography, it provides over 6 hours of prime Chicago blues. The mastering is as good as one can expect with some of this material coming from rare acetates or 78s.
Musically, this compilation takes us from recordings in the relaxed band sound that some scholars termed “the Bluebird Beat,” to the more familiar impassioned ensemble blues of Mississippi natives Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Included are the earliest commercial recordings of Muddy Waters and Johnny Shines, that were not issued until a couple decades later. There are recordings from small independent labels like the Maxwell Street based Ora Nelle label with Johnny Young’s “Money Taking Woman,” the J.O.B. label with Johnny Shines’ “Ramblin’,” Old Swingmaster for Snooky & Moody’s “Keep what You Got,” Parrot with Dusty Brown’s “He Don’t Love You,” Cool Records with Billy Boy Arnold’s “Hello Stranger,” and more.
There are artists new to me such as Grey Haired Bill, Mildred White (who recorded at a session with Pete Franklin (with Tampa Red on piano), and ‘Blues Boy’ Bill, along with representative recordings of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf, with some of these being alternate takes to those on 78s and 45s and only available on out-of-print album reissues on labels like Blues Classics, Nighthawk, Muskadine, Flyright and others. There are also rarities from Birmingham Jones, St. Louis Jimmy, Robert Nighthawk Albert King, Baby Face Leroy Foster, J.B. Hutto, Pete Franklin, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boyd, Memphis Minnie and Po’ Joe Williams (aka (Big Joe).
While not every one of the 134 songs is a blues classic, this collection is filled with so many gems as well as some entertaining selections that give an solid overview of early blues recording in Chicago. Add the 88 page booklet from Blues Scholar Mike Rowe, and this release is invaluable to lovers of Chicago blues. There is almost 6 and 1/2 hours of music on these five CDs which does not duplicate any of the selections on another reissue collection, the four-disc “Down Home Blues Classics Vol. 3:Chicago” on Boulevard Vintage) which is also highly recommended if you can find it.
I purchased this and it was originally submitted as a review for a Holiday issue of Jazz & Blues Report that was issued, but has appeared in the Jan-Feb 2018 issue (Issue 376). For a taste of some of the music, here is Dusty Brown's recording of "He Don't Love You,"
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