Muddy Waters Blues Band Mud In Your Ear

Muddy Waters Blues Band

Mud In Your Ear

Douglas

Douglas Records has made available on compact disc, “Mud In Your Ear”, 15 selections by the Muddy Waters Blues Band originally issued on two vinyl albums issued back over forty years ago on what was then Alan Douglas’ new label. Muddy Waters is on the session, but limited to backing guitar although taking a few recognizable slide solos. His band at that time included Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson on vocals and guitar; George ‘Mojo’ Buford on harmonica and vocals; Otis Spann on piano; Sammy lawhorn on guitar; Lawrence ‘Sonny’ Wimberly on bass and Francis Clay on drums. 

Johnson and Mojo, along with Spann, would have been featured on the Band’s opening selections before Muddy would be brought up. This recording allows Johnson and Buford to have more of the spotlight then they would live as well as allows us to hear this edition of Waters Band upfront. Johnson takes the bulk of the vocals including a nice rendition of Washboard Sam’s “Diggin’ My Potatoes,” and Muddy’s “Long Distance Call,” with his take on the “another mule kicking in my stall” climax. The title track, heard in a lengthy version and a brief reprise, is an rocking instrumental rendition of “Got My Mojo Working.” There are also solid renditions of “Coming Home Baby” and Jimmy Smith’s “Chicken Shack,” songs that were typical opening numbers. 

Johnson’s “I’m So Glad” is a pretty strong original with Muddy adding some stinging slide. Also nice are his interpretations of a couple lesser known Waters numbers, the brooding “Remember Me,” and Waters’ “Evil,” where he sings that when you see him coming better run and hide. Spann is particularly superb on these and Buford adds some nice harp. Buford comes across well on the first-rate “I’m So Glad,” and “Watch Dog.” The latter number is a slow blues with a clever lyric about needing a watch dog to look after things when he goes away on business. 

This was a tight band and these are solid performances. Johnson did record overseas after leaving Muddy Waters but died much too young while Buford made several albums until his passing a few years back. This is a good document of the Muddy Waters band of the time before Spann left, and while this is not an essential reissue, it is a welcome one.

This was a purchase. This review originally appeared in the September-October 2012 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 344). Here is a performance from Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson.

Little Willie Anderson Swung The Blues

The B.O.B. label was a small Chicago label that issued some choice harmonica blues albums that were produced by Bob Corritore who has become a distinguished harmonica player in his own name and continues to produce some stellar recordings. In the mid-nineties Michael Frank’s Earwig label reissued two of the releases including CDs by Little Willie Anderson and Big Leon Brooks. This review of Little Willie Anderson appeared in February 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 198). I likely received a review copy of this recording. It is still available (although possibly as a CD-R). Earwig Records has certainly done a service for harmonica blues fans with the reissue of two albums from the B.O.B. label that featured two lesser known Chicago harp players, both of whom have passed - this album and Big Leon Brooks’ Let’s Go To Town. Little Willie Anderson’s Swinging the Blues finds the harp player who was sometimes called Little Walter Jr. (he died in 1991) matched with several musicians who certainly had a significant tenure with Little Walter, including guitarists Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Lee Robinson and drummer Fred Below with Sammy Lawhorn also guesting. With Anderson’s hoarse, crusty vocals and raw harp, Lockwood’s distinctive chording, Lawhorn’s subtle leads and Below’s propulsive drumming, the album is well titled with several instrumentals, including a relaxed Lester Leaps In (with Pete Haskins’ sax added) and the atmospheric Late Night mixed in with Anderson’s idiomatic originals like Come Here Mama, Looking For You Baby, and Willie’s Women Blues, all played with a loose, relaxed groove. To paraphrase one of his songs, it must have been the jelly that gave Willie Anderson the blues, as he sings with considerable vitality. His harp playing may be Walter inspired, but its raw sound indicates he was his own man and didn’t attempt to recreate Walter’s recordings. Nothing fancy here, just a set of solidly played blues.

Classic Muddy Waters Found

1999 brought a treat to Blues Lovers when Blind Pig issued previously unissued recordings by Muddy waters, The Lost Tapes. I wrote the following review in 1999 and it likely was published in the DC Blues Society newsletter. This recording is still in print.

Blind Pig Records has something of a coup with the release of a previously unissued live performance from one of the greatest blues performers of all time, Muddy Waters. The Lost Tapes presents Muddy from two 1971 West Coast shows with his band that included George ‘Harmonica‘ Smith, pianist Pinetop Perkins, guitarists Sammy Lawhorn and Pee Wee Madison, along with bassist Calvin Jones and drummer Willie Smith. The opportunity to hear Waters performing some of the staples of his repertoire with one of his best bands makes this a recording that should be of interest to blues lovers.

Songs heard here include, Honey Bee, Hootchie Cootchie Man, Walking Thru the Park, Trouble No More, Just to Be With You, She‘s 19 Years Old, Mannish Boy, Crawlin‘ Kingsnake, and Got My Mojo Working. While some of the songs may be overly familiar, the opportunity to hear Waters belt out the vocals in a robust fashion while showcasing his stinging slide on Honey Bee and Long Distance Call, makes it worth it.

This was a fine band although one wishes 19 Years Old was a brief shorter (although Lawhorn and Smith sound quite good on their solos). While probably not as strong as the Live Newport Jazz Festival album that appeared on Chess, The Lost Tapes, certainly is an important addition to the discography of one of the premier blues artists of all time. Incidentally, this is an enhanced cd, but the enhanced features only operate under the Windows operating system.

Here is a video of Muddy with George 'Harmonica' Smith doing Walking Thru the Park.

Johnny Young's Big Fat Chicago Mandolin Blues

There have been few blues mandolin players recorded. One of them was Johnny Young, a traditionally rooted Chicago based bluesman who passed away over thirty-five years. Rich DelGrosso celebrated the music of Young and other blues mandolin players on “Mandolin Man” from the recent album he did with John Del Toro Richardson, “Time Slips By”.

Young was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, learned from an uncle who was part of a string band in Rolling Fork, and later was associated with the Mississippi Sheiks as well as with blues legends Houston Stackhouse and Robert Nighthawk. He moved permanently to Chicago in 1940 and played in clubs with John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson as well as engaged in a number of day jobs. In 1947 he was playing on the Maxwell Street Market and with a cousin, Johnny Williams recorded Money Taking Woman, for the Ora Nelle label on which he played mandolin and sang. He accompanied his cousin on the flip side on what was one of the earliest post-war Chicago blues recordings.

He made a few more 78s and in the fifties backed Snooky Pryor on a Vee-Jay recording session. Blues and jazz writer Pete Welding extensively recorded Young on his Testament label with selections appearing on anthologies and eventually a full album of recordings with sidemen including harmonica players Big Walter and Little Walter; guitarists John Lee Granderson and Robert Nighthawk, and pianists Jimmy Walker and Otis Spann. Approximately half of these recordings featured him on mandolin. Young was recorded as part of Vanguard’s Chicago the Blues Today! series although only one of the tracks had him on mandolin. Two albums were recorded on Arhoolie, one of which included members of Muddy Waters band and some selections included his mandolin playing.

In June 1969, Young recorded with pianist Otis Spann, and guitarist/bass guitarist Sammy Lawhorn, harmonica player Paul Oscher and drummer S.P. Leary, who all were then members of Muddy Waters Band for an album that was issued in England on the Blue Horizon label as Fat Mandolin. Mike Vernon, founder of Blue Horizon, estimated the initial release only sold in the hundreds, which says more about marketing and popular tastes than the quality of the music. Sony/Blue Horizon issued a few years back Johnny Young’s The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions with some alternate takes, false starts and unissued songs. As Vernon observes in his liner notes, this is the first digital reissue of this material.

The album provides a healthy dose of Young’s mandolin starting with the opening Moaning and Groaning. where the clipped mandolin sound is complemented by Spann’s typically strong piano accompaniment as well as solos to take it out. Taken a lively, but unhurried tempo, Young’s robust vocal here is straightforward and heartfelt. There is nothing innovative here; simple strong Chicago blues sung and played with authority few today can deliver. One can hear the influence of the pioneering Leroy Carr in such Young originals as Heard My Doorbell Ring, as well as the remake of Carr’s Prison Bound, a staple of the Chicago blues scene of the time. On My Trainfare Out of Town, where Young plays guitar, Oscher evokes Walter Horton with his harmonica, while Spann pounds out another solo. 

Lula Mae is a marvelous duet of Young on mandolin backed by Lawhorn on bass guitar, while John Lee Williamson’s Shotgun Blues is titled here as Jackson Bound, and we are provided the incomplete first take as the master take as he sings the terrific line Lake Michigan Ain’t No River, Chicago Ain’t No Hilly Town. Walking Slow opens with some classic slow blues piano from Spann before Young starts his vocal and Vernon suggests Lawhorn is the guitarist here. Mandolin returns for the two, somewhat different takes of Deal the Cards, with a philosophical delivery of the lyric about always being dealt the losing hand. Lend Me You Love has some incomplete takes before a memorable rendition of a Memphis Slim inspired song that fans of the late Junior Wells should recognize. Other highlights include the wonderful rendition of Prison Bound, with just Young on mandolin and Lawhorn on bass guitar and Victoria Spivey’s Mean Old Black Snake. Also included are previously unissued recordings including a lively version of the old Memphis Jug Band’s Stealin’ that he had recorded at least twice before.

It is an important and valuable reissue that should be available from better retailers. I purchased this.

Wells Live At Theresa's 1975 Caught Him in Prime Form.

I had the pleasure to see Junior Wells a number of times over the years. The first several times it was when he had his partnership with Buddy Guy while I was living in Buffalo. First time was with a fellow University of Buffalo grad student in Toronto at El Macombo. Somehow we got seats on the side of the stage (apparently my friend had a close resemblance to one of the members of Downchild) and it was a treat to see and hear the two with the band when it included A.C. Reed on saxophone. Later, there would be shows at the Belle Star in Colden, NY, in the hills west of Buffalo including one where Jeff Beck was in the audience. Junior sang his ass off for about two hours, and Buddy played his butt off too (Buddy was one of Jeff’s favorite guitarists). At the time, both were prominent figures in the blues world, but there were times when they would clown a bit. The night with Beck  in the audience (and he jammed with them the late second set), there there was just magic and no clowning.  At the time when they were back home in Chicago, they each had their own gigs. Junior held forth at Theresa’s, a neighborhood bar.

Back in 2006, Delmark issued some previously unissued live Junior Wells recordings from Theresa’s that was a wonderful surprise to the many fans of Wells as well as blues fans in general. Live At Theresa’s 1975, was taken from recordings made for broadcast on Chicago station WXRT-FM. Wells on this recording was supported by a band that included Phil Guy on guitar and Earnest Johnson bass. Both were regular members of Wells’ touring band when he joined with Buddy Guy around this time.

On the two dates from January 1975, Byther Smith or Sammy Lawhorn are also on guitar and Vince Chapelle or Levi Warren are on drums. There are some fine performances of songs that were staples of Wells’ repertoire until his death, such as Little By Little, Come On in This House, It Hurts Me Too, What My Mama Told Me and Messing With the Kid. Smith takes a vocal on Help the Poor from B.B. King’s repertoire. The music is solid, and there is plenty of banter from Junior including singing Happy Birthday to photographer Mark Pokemper and acting as Pokemper’s pitchman.  Junior and the band were in terrific form here.

With all the welcome publicity of the recent Junior Wells Live in Boston 1966 on Delmark, this disc should not be overlooked. It is as good and provides a sense of what Wells’ sounded like playing for a different audience then the college kids who saw him in 1966. It should also be relatively easy to find. When this came out, I selected this as among the outstanding blues CDs of 2006 and reviewed it in the December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 289) which I have modified for the current post.


For purposes of FTC regulations, I likely received the review copy from Delmark Records.

John Primer

John Primer still remains true to his blues, deeply rooted in the classic Chicago blues of Muddy Waters and Elmore James. This review of his first US release on Earwig appeared back in Jazz & Blues Report in 1993, when John was still a member of Magic Slim & the Teardrops.

Fans of straight ahead Chicago blues should check out John Primer’s Stuff You Got to Watch on Earwig. The Mississippi born Primer was in the house band at Theresa’s Lounge where he was befriended by the late Sammy Lawhorn. Later he was in Muddy Waters’ last band and has been with Magic Slim and the Teardrops for the past few years. While he has an album for the Austrian Wolf label, this US debut certainly makes one wonder what took him so long to get hooked up with a US label. Among those on this date are fellow Teardrop, Nick Holt, on bass, Harmonica Hinds on harp and Carl Snyder on keyboards. It is an excellent studio band which strongly supports Primer’s delta rooted vocals and guitar . While much of this is Primer’s originals, his covers are imaginative with a strong nod to Muddy on the title track. His renditions of Freddy King’s See See Baby and Magic Sam’s That’s All I Need are wonderfully paced performances while he personalizes Otis Rush’s Double Trouble, giving it a fresh cast that almost is as good as Rush’s original (which had Ike Turner’s guitar in addition to Rush’s). Jimmy and Jeannie Cheatham’s Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On, is answered by Primer’s original Bring Your Clothes Back Home. Less expected is his transformation of Texas country bluesman Little Son Jackson’s Cairo Blues into a Chicago band blues.The instrumental Lawhorn Special is a fitting nod to the late guitar giant and his mentor. To these ears, the only misguided effort is Rhinestone Cowboy (the Glen Campbell pop-country hit), but perhaps it will get him on Nashville Now. This is first-rate album of Chicago blues that comes from (to borrow a Bob Margolin phrase) “The Old School.”

Muddy Waters' Fillmore Debut Finally Available

It was a surprise to find out that Geffen Records was going to issue some previously unreleased live performances by Muddy Waters, at a time he was arguably musically at his peak. Recorded around the time Muddy recorded Muddy, Brass, & the Blues, the newly issued Authorized Bootleg/ Live Fillmore Auditorium, presents Muddy's performances (but not those by his band members) from November 4 through 6, 1966. His band at the time consisted of Luther "Georgia Snake Boy" Johnson and Sammy Lawhorn on guitars, George 'Harmonica' Smith on harmonica, Mac Arnold on bass and Francis Clay on drums. Its unusual in that Otis Spann was not with the band. Perhaps he had left Muddy at the time they went to San Francisco, but I recall seeing Muddy in the summer of 1967 or 1968, opening for Moby Grape in New York's Central Park and Spann was with the band.

Be what it may, what is important is here is the music, and this contains probably the best live Muddy Waters recordings I have heard. Especially on the six performances from November 5 that open this session, find Muddy singing with such power and authority and the band is terrific. Listening to him do Forty Days and Forty Nights and She Moves Me, is riveting. Got My Mojo Working sounds fresh and not hackneyed. From November 6, there is a terrific rendition of You Can't Lose What You Never Had and an extended rendition of Thirteen Highway. When Muddy takes out his slide, it just adds to the power of these performances. And Muddy's band members get their spots to shine, with George 'Harmonica' Smith perhaps being the most prominent here.

One might wish that some of the opening and closing songs by the members of the Muddy Waters Band had been included, although I can see for the purpose of limiting this to one disc, that would not have been feasible. To repeat myself, this is the finest Muddy Waters live recording available and is essential to all blues lovers.

I am adding today (April 4) that these three shows are available to download in full (with the band cuts included) from Wolfgang's Vault. http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/
link to the November 5 show - There is a charge to download.