Elmore James Jr's Daddy Provided A Strong Blues Legacy

Children of famous performers sometimes follow in the parents footsteps and others take a fresh turn. In the blues, sons of Muddy waters have performed blues definitely inspired by their legendary father as has singer-guitarist Eddie Taylor, Jr. In contrast, Lurrie Bell took up guitar and daughter Shemekia did not have to worry about be Johnny Copeland Jr. Another son of a blues legend, Elmore James Jr. (real name is Earnest Johnson) put out a recording several years ago, Daddy Gave Me The Blues (JSP) that doesn't simply clone his father's music. On this, his band includes saxophonists Jeff Turmes and Ron Dzuibla, bassist Oakland Red, guitarists Rick Reed and Cadillac Zack and Stephen Mugalian on drums.

The music on Daddy Gave Me The Blues is far more than simply hard slide guitar blues and shuffles. The opening Don't Get Mad is a solid contemporary Chicago blues that suggests John Primer and the late Willie Kent. As a singer, Elmore Jr. sounds more like Homesick James than his father, as can be heard on Going Back Home, a nice slide guitar blues in his father's style. "Tore Down is a fresh reworking of the Freddie King recording built upon a funky groove and bass riff. The reworking of Jimmy Reed's You Don't Have To Go (titled here Oh Baby) finds him back with the slide and an arrangement and sound reminiscent of Homesick James' Baby Please Set a Date. In addition to some strong slide guitar, their is a strutting tenor sax solo.

The title track is a scuffling sounding shuffle with an autobiographical lyric as he talks about about how daddy gave his family a Cadillac in a 1951 and helped him become a musician. Cummins Prison Farm is another song with some slide (again in the Homesick James vein) as Elmore Jr gives a forceful delivery of Calvin Leavy's blues classic about the notorious prison farm with a solid solo likely from Reed or Cadillac Zack in addition to the leader's slide which serves primarily as instrumental foil to his vocals. A highpoint is Electric Man where he sings when I plug into your socket, I can charge you like no man." The song is a strong reworking of Memphis Slim's Grinder Man Blues, with a nice old school solo from him as well. Steppin' With Elmore is a slide guitar instrumental in the fashion of Elmore's Bobby's Rock.

The album closes with an acoustic rendition of Going Back Home, with a nice accompaniment and solid vocal. In fact his vocals have a definite appeal to me. He sings in a straight-forward manner and the performances have a natural soulfulness. While his performances may not have all of the intensity of his father, Daddy Gave Me The Blues is a nicely performed recording worth the consideration of Chicago blues lovers.

I purchased this CD. I should note that I have misplaced my hard copy of this recording so hopefully I did not screw up the personnel listing.

Ruf's Corrects Its Promotion of Luther Allison's Underground

Post: Updated November 7. Ruf has updated its website discussing Underground, supplementing its original release notes and suggesting a recording date of 1967-1968. When I drafted the original blog entry, the release notes were what is labeled the original release notes after Rien Wisse's updated release notes. The fact that Ruf acknowledged and corrected the error it is quite commendable. below is my original post as of November 2

Ruf Records has issued a CD of Luther Allison, Underground. In the release notes on the website it is stated:

"The discovery and release of Luther Allison's 1958 debut recording represents a blues find that surfaces with all the excitement of some long forgotten historical document. After sitting for 50 years in the home of Luther's wife, Fannie Allison, Luther's son Bernard unearthed these monumental recordings to show the music world the portrait of this artist as a young man."

Later, Art Tipaldi closes these notes,"One researcher note. The first tune here is titled "Hide Away." Research shows that Freddie King took portions of "Hide Away" from Hound Dog Taylor instrumental and that King didn't record that song until 1960. Could this then be the first recorded version of "Hideaway"? Gentlemen, start your search engines."

A sticker on the CD that I saw in a store states that these are 1958 recordings and never previously issued. This not true. First of all these recordings were previously issued and sold. I know because I bought a vinyl lp from Luther in 1971 called Underground with the 8 tracks that have been reissued. It was sold by Luther as if it was bootleg (I suspect he was still under contract to Delmark). The simple album label stated it was produced by Bobby Rush. Unissued. I suggest not.

The suggested 1958 recording date (the date taken from a Bobby Rush recollection) does not stand up to simple scrutiny. Nice fantasy to suggest that it might be the first recording of Hideaway, but one of the songs on this disc, the cover of the Ricky Allen classic, Cut You Loose, was not recorded until around 1963 (Allen did not even arrive in Chicago until 1960) so that if you want to suggest this is the earliest recording of Hideaway, then you also have to make the incredible claim that Luther made the first recording of Cut You Loose as well.

I suggest this was recorded between 1968 and 1970, after Luther's Delmark album was issued. It might have been intended primarily as a demo to be shopped to a bigger label which Luther also sold at gigs. Three of the eight songs on this were redone on Luther's 1972 Motown debut, Bad News is Coming, and Freddy King's The Stumble is on the Motown instead of Hideaway. I point out that no one should not be surprised that Allison performed and recorded King's instrumentals as he took over King's Chicago bar gig when the Texas Cannonball started touring because of the success of his classic Federal Recordings.

On the Post-War Blues List on Yahoo, Klaus Kilian first observed that "Cut You Loose" was recorded after 1958. He stated "Apparently Bobby Rush remembered the date wrong and [Ruf] took his word. However, anybody listening to the music who knows anything about the development of postwar blues should be able to realise that these tracks couldn't be from 1958. I mean, "Don't Start Me Talkin'" with a funk beat? "Cut You Loose" recorded years before Ricky Allen's 45? And with the exact same arrangement Luther did for Motown a little later?"

It will be interesting to see how many reviewers parrot the release notes. I would not be surprised to see a number reviewers out there get this wrong.

Added on November 7: