Bonnie Lee Sweetheart Of The Blues

Bonnie Lee
Sweetheart Of The Blues
Delmark

Among new Delmark blues releases is Bonnie Lee’s Sweetheart of the Blues. Probably best known for her performances with Willie Kent and the Gents, this album will surprise many as it shows her to be far more a singer than a blues belter.

While those familiar with her will not be surprised by her take on Jimmy Reed’s Baby, What You Want Me To Do, her low-key interpretation of Buddy Johnson’s classic ballad Since I Fell For You is a model of taste and phrasing that showcases another side of her. There is considerable variety in the musical settings, from the straight Chicago blues flavor of Got the Blues ‘Bout My Baby with Billy Branch’s harp, the dance-oriented I Love My Baby, and Ocean of Tears which is suggestive to these ears of a Big Maybelle tune.

In addition to Billy Branch, others appearing on this album include bassist, Willie Kent, guitarist Willie Davis, guitarist Steve Freund (who contributes several choice solos, and even takes one vocal, If You Be My Baby), pianist Ken Saydak, and saxophonist Hank Ford, whose solo on Since I Fell For You is especially tasty. Johnny B. Moore contributes the stinging, snapping guitar behind Bonnie’s unforced vocal on Junior Parker’s Next Time You See Me.

With its variety and Bonnie Lee’s natural soulful singing, Sweetheart of the Blues makes for an impressive American LP debut. 

I likely received a review copy from Delmark Records. This review originally appeared in the October 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 205). Here she is performing at the 1999 Chicgao Blues Festival.

Tail Dragger - Stop Lyin'

A surprising new release on Delmark makes available the first recordings byJames Yancy Jones, better known as Tail Dragger, Stop Lyin’. It was recorded at the time Tail Dragger had been been performing with various bands, but had yet to make to make music his career. He had been working as a truck mechanic and a log distance hauler (including traveling down south to haul back catfish from Mississippi for the Delta Fish market) On Stop Lyin’, he was backed by a band that included Johnny B Moore and Jesse Lee Williams on guitar, Eddie ‘Jewtown’ Burks or Little Mac Simmons on harmonica, Willie Kent on bass and Larry Taylor on drums with Lafayette Leake

adding piano on two selections. 

Tail Dragger’s music is very much in the vein of Howlin’ Wolf that Justin O’Brien, in the liner notes, observes was an “over-the-top take on Wolf’s delivery.” Two of the nine songs here So Ezee and My Head Is Bald were issued on Jimmy Dawkins’ Leric label and the others appear on a recording for the first time. Tail Dragger’s songs here are all originals although some modeled on Wolf’s recordings so the groove of Where Did You Go might evoke Smokestack Lightnin’ or Commit a Crime, whereas the use of the Dust My Broom riff on Alabama Bound similarly suggests Wolf’s Highway 61. Their is some nice slide guitar on the latter number. Tail Dragger was, and is, an appealing singing although his vocals lack the articulation of the Wolf's singing.

In addition to the blues performances, this cd is filled out by the lengthy spoken Tail’s Tale, a fascinating and frank bit of oral history that provides some sense of the time and place of this recording. The songs are nicely played and performed and this will appeal to fans of old school Chicago blues.

I received my review copy from Delmark. Here is a video of Tail Dragger with Rockin' Johnny doing My Head Is Bald.