Johnny Guitar Watson Reissues

JOHNNY ‘GUITAR’ WATSON
What the Hell Is This?
Love Jones
Johnny “Guitar” Watson And The Family Clone
SHOUT! FACTORY

After the excellent retrospective of Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson’s later recordings, "The Funk Anthology," Shout Factory has started to issue his seven DJM albums as well as his last album.

Among those that have been issued is "What the Hell Is This?" The title track of this 1979 release has a topical lyric akin to "Ain’t it a Bitch" and "A Real Mother For Ya." The lyric is delivered in a sung-spoken manner that anticipates rap and there is a nice solo break. Other highpoints include the humorous dig at his "Mother-in-Law," who finds nothing good about Johnny, the ballad "In the World," which shows how romantic (yet still bluesy Johnny was and perhaps why singers like Etta James were influenced by him) and the rendition of" I Don’t Want to Be President," co-written with Percy Mayfield who recorded it earlier, with his complaints that he would not care so much about Congress knowing who he was visiting but what would he tell his wife. Two previously unissued tracks, "Watsonian Institute" and "The Funk I Know" are added to the original seven tracks.

"Love Jones" is another new Watson reissue and opens with a nice piece of funk, "Booty Ooty," celebrating some fine lady’s shaking of her body to the music. The title track is an other soulful ballad, while "Going Up In Smoke" is a funky groove about big money wasters, and "Close Encounters" sports a latin-tinged groove as Watson sings about a close encounter of the wrong kind and being a fool losing his cool. "Asanta Sana "is a fascinating African flavored number done before such world beat performances were common and again indicating how ahead of his time Watson was. "Telephone Bill" is an amusing rap based on his phone bill getting too high when he called a new lady against a funk groove. "Lone Ranger" is an update of a track he first did for Fantasy about cruising the world with a stranger, and no one wanting to be a lonely one. "Jet Plane" (“There is a Jet Plane bound for heaven,”) is a reworking of the gospel number “This Train.” "Children of the Universe" has an autobiographical lyric about growing up in Texas and seeking to become an entertainer. "Funky Blues" and an "Untitled Mix" are previously unissued selections, with the blues being a nice slow instrumental that sports some nice guitar and judicious use of a guitar vocal decoder (hope I identified this correctly), although it ends somewhat abruptly.

The final reissue is "Johnny “Guitar” Watson And The Family Clone," on which Watson actually plays all of the instruments except drums except for one track. The title is a tribute to Sly and the Family Stone. "Forget the Jones" has him philosophizing about not worrying about what the Jones are doing, while "Come and Dance With Me" is a nice funk number with Watson using the guitar vocal decoder again as he asks the lady to come and dance with him, playfully delivered. "What is Love?" is another ballad by Watson who delivers it so well. "Voodoo What You Do" is a love song to his woman sung so sexily about what his woman does to him. The extra, previously unissued, tracks are Watson’s soulful interpretation of Percy Mayfield’s classic blues, "Please Send Me Someone to Love," and "Chill Me Out."

This review originally appeared in the March/April 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 280).  I likely received my review copy from either the label directly or from Jazz & Blues Report. One may have to check ebay and other sites for these reissues. Here is a live performance of "Booty Ooty."

Dirty Dozen Brass Band What’s Going On

Dirty Dozen Brass Band
What’s Going On
Shout Factory

Like others from their home city of New Orleans, the members of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band have been greatly affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They recorded this new album with some friends which reinterprets the classic Marvin Gaye album on a recording that is very relevant in light of the catastrophic events of last year in which the band members, like so many, lost their homes, and so much more.

More than their homes, they were distressed about the loss of their communities and personal treasures; photo albums and mementos of their travels were all destroyed. “I’m not talking about clothes and shoes and material things, but family albums,” says Roger Lewis. “I have a 7-year old daughter. I had pictures of myself as a child, but I can’t share them with her because they were destroyed. All she’s really going to know is her dad as a 64-year-old man.”

The album opens with Chuck D rapping on the title track with a justified bitterness as the Dozen provides a sobering backing with Revert Andrews contributing a strong trombone solo. This is followed by a Betty Lavette take on "What’s Happening Brother" as she sings “Are things really getting better like the newspaper says ... I just don’t understand what’s going on in this land ... will the Tigers win the pennant, do they stand a chance ...” with the tenor sax reaching to the higher registers behind her. "Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky)," is taken at a medium tempo with a rather nice rendering of it before the tempo picks up as the members chant “Help Me Somebody,” with some nice spirited playing as the tune rides out. Some nice trumpet leads "Save the Children" which also includes some nice sax work including Roger Lewis’ baritone, and original member Kirk Joseph provides a foundation on the sousaphone and Jamie Mclean’s guitar brings African flavoring and rhythm. Ivan Neville guests on God Is Love, as Joseph and Lewis add the deep bottom behind his vocal as the brass punctuate the lyrics. G. Love raps the lyrics "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" with the Dozen providing a sharp funk groove before they get another groove going on "Right On," as Revert Andrews takes the lead on trombone prior to Kevin Harris’ tenor sax. The last instrumental, "Holy Holy," is rendered almost as a funeral dirge before they conclude with Guru rapping on "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," concluding a very thoughtful and moving recording.

A portion of the proceeds from this CD will be donated to the Tiptina’s Foundation, benefiting the musical community of New Orleans.

I am not sure if I received from Shout Factory or a publicist. This review originally appeared in the October 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 287). I made a couple minor corrections. Here the Dirty Dozen performs "What's Going On."

 

Ronnie Earl Plays With Heart & Soul

The review below was part of a review of several Black Top Records compilations issued by Shout Factory in 2006 and appeared in the September-October Jazz & Blues Report (issue 286). I may have received this directly from Shout Factory or from the publication. Reviews of the Anson Funderburgh and Guitar Shorty compilations have already run. I have made some stylistic changes. I should point out that a  number of the Black Top recordings are available in reissue or mp3 and you might want to check collector's choice music as well as Amazon and other websites for the Black Top recordings.

Ronnie Earl has established a lengthy catalog since leaving Roomful of Blues with albums on Bullseye Blues, Telarc and Stony Plain in addition to his fine discs on Black Top. Heart and Soul; The Best of Ronnie Earl. Starting with Smokin’, we hear Earl expanding his musical palette incorporating jazz influences in his playing and repertoire over the years leading to his instrumentally recordings of recent years. 

Vocalists supported by Earl include, Sugar Ray Norcia (with whom Earl recorded as Ronnie Earl Horvath in the late seventies before he joined Roomful of Blues) handling Guitar Slim’s You Give Me Nothing But the Blues; Darrell Nulisch on the fittingly titled Soul Searchin’; Kim Wilson on I Smell Trouble; and Mighty Sam McClain on the stunning Earl original, A Soul That’s Been Abused from Hubert Sumlin’s Blues Party. 

Instrumental features include a wonderful interpretation of Earl Hooker’s Blue Guitar as well as trading licks with Duke Robillard on What have I Done Wrong, from a 2005 Stony Plain recording, before closing with an instrumental rendition of Drown In My Own Tears, that features the great David ‘Fathead’ Newman. 

I am not sure whether this is really a Best of, but certainly is an excellent career retrospective of Mr. Earl’s music.

Here is Ronnie from 2012 doing a Kenny Burrell classic.

Anson Funderburgh & The Rocket's Best!

The review below was part of a review of several Black Top Records compilations issued by Shout Factory in 2006 and appeared in the September-October Jazz & Blues Report (issue 286). I may have received this directly from Shout Factory or from the publication. Reviews of the other two compilations will run in the next couple weeks. I have made some stylistic changes. I should point out that a  number of the Black Top recordings are available in reissue and you might want to check collector's choice music as well as other websites.

Shout Factory has been reissuing product from the catalog of the Black Top label, arguably the label that from the mid-eighties through its demise in the nineties, had the strongest catalog of blues releases in that period. Earlier releases included the discs of Solomon Burke, and a Hubert Sumlin one. Three new releases are “Best of” collections centered on three of the label’s artists that do include recordings these performers made for other labels.

It was ironic that I received, Blast Off -- The Best Of Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets, the day word that Sam Myers, the great Mississippi vocalist had passed away. It is odd that this reissue does not mention featuring Sam Myers who appeared on most of the Rockets discs after Myers joined Anson and his varying line-up over the years, especially since the band took off as one of the preeminent blues bands after Myers became featured. 

The above is not to say that the band was shabby with the original vocalist Darrell Nulisch who certainly turns in an amiable performance on Earl King’s Come On, but a younger Nulisch simply had not developed the authority that Myers brought with his singing and harp as evident on A Man Needs His Loving, Moose John Walker’s Ramblin’ Woman or Buddy Guy’s reworking of Barrett Strong’s Money, $100 Bill. Additionally Myers brought his considerable harp talent to the recordings and live dates. Anson himself displays his sizzling playing as well as his impeccable taste, and is featured on Down at JJ’s. While the backing personnel changed over the years, they remained a tight, swinging outfit. 

There are numerous pleasures to be heard on all 17 selections which is compiled from all nine Rockets recordings, including selections from the two Bullseye Blues albums and the two with Nulisch and one certainly hopes that at least a few of the Rockets CDs featuring Sam Myers including Sins, Rack ‘Em Up, and Tell Me What I Want to Hear, are issued in their entirety. 

Here is a video clip of Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets featuring the late legend, Sam Myers.

Johnny Guitar Watson - The Funk Anthology

Few folk have had as much influence in the worlds of blues soul and funk than Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. As David Ritz notes in the liner notes of the two disc, The Funk Anthology, Watson lends a long shadow over hip hop, with the track It’s About the Dollar Bill exemplifying this best, although rappers have long sampled his grooves and Snoop Doggy Dogg lifted a trademark phrase from Watson’s Bow Wow (Which Watson in performance referred to as the dog song). He was a major influence on folks as varied as Etta James (“He’s my model. He taught me to sing blues. He taught me to sing ballads....”), Jimi Hendrix, The Vaughan Brothers (who linked him with Freddie, Albert and B.B. King of guitarists they admired... “He made magic,” according to Jimi), Prince and too many others to list as well as being admired by so many others like Marvin Gaye, the Neville Brothers and Lightnin’ Hopkins (“The blues gets all over everything. Watson is all over the blues and the blues is all over him.”).

When he collapsed on stage in Japan during the second verse of Super-man Lover, it ended a four-decade career that took him from Houston to the world and transformed Young John Watson into the Gangster of Love and Superman Lover. He was a pianist who could rock the boogie like Amos Milburn and a guitarist who wowed Frank Zappa with tracks like Three Hours Past Midnight . Then there is the incredible guitar showpiece from the mid-fifties space guitar plus his originals of Gangster of Love. I suspect Watson’s recording of One Room Country Shack inspired Buddy Guy to do that number. Then there were his acclaimed piano album, the duets with Larry Williams which probably did not catch the mood of the audience turning to Motown, the two superb albums for Fantasy which anticipated his maturation and his funkster era for DJM in the seventies.

The Funk Anthology has two and a half hours of Watson’s music from his seven DJM albums From Ain’t it a Bitch in 1976 to Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and the Family Clone (1981), as well as his last album in 1994, Bow Wow for Bellmark). There is at least one album that Watson did in the interim not represented, but this compilation made by his children certainly is full with some terrific music, some of which has become staples of blues and funk bands today, like A Real Motha For Ya, Superman Lover, You Can Stay But the Noise Must Go and Bow Wow. 

There also is the humorous post-Watergate I Don’t Want to Be President that Watson co-authored with Percy Mayfield (and on whose Atlantic recording by Mayfield of this Watson played). I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby has to be as sexy a love song as one is gonna hear anywhere and with the mix of his soulful and bluesy vocals, modern funk feel the other songs like Ain’t It a Bitch, the humorous Telephone Bill (where he sings about calling his woman after 9:00PM when the rates go down), the closing Johnny G is Back, although of course he never left and he does revisit and funkify Gangster of Love.

I am sure that some of those who complain about ‘purists’ in the blues will also dismiss this as funk and not blues, but the simple fact is for the 70s through the 90s this was as contemporary as the blues got. Shout Factory will be reissuing the eight albums collected here separately, so this also serves as an introduction to those releases. These two discs will certainly keep things funked up quite nicely.

This review originally appeared in the December 2005 DC Blues Calendar and in a slightly abridged form in the February 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 279) and I likely received my review copy from either the label directly or from Jazz & Blues Report. Here is Johnny from 1997 performing I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby in Germany.

Jimmy Reed's Classic Chicago Blues

Shout Factory continues its reissues from the legendary Vee Jay Records catalog and has made available some classic recordings on CD. This is a reissues of the original album and do not appear to be augmented by alternate takes or additional songs. They reproduce the original liner notes and have some contemporary commentary as well. Sound is very good.

Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall makes available the double LP album that was issued in 1961. Reed headlined a blues show at the venerable hall but his performance was not recorded. Instead he recreated the performance in the studio for one of the two discs (the first 11 tracks) while the second LP was comprised of reworking some of his best recordings, a Best of Jimmy Reed with new recordings. With drummer Earl Phillips on most of these recordings, his son, Jimmy Jr. handles guitar on eight of these tracks, while other selections feature Eddie Taylor, Lefty Bates, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Littlejohn, Remo Biondi and Phil Upchurch.

Albert King is the drummer on the renditions of You Don’t Have to Go and Boogie in the Dark. The renditions of Bright Lights, Big City, Found Joy, Tell Me You Love Me, along with recreations of Baby What You Want me to Do, Honest I Love, and Take Out Some Insurance are done in the deceptively simple boogie shuffle style of Reed with his mush mouth vocals and simple high note harmonica, but delivered with complete sincerity that gave his music a wide-spread appeal.

This review originally appeared in the March 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 303). I believe I received my review copy from the publication. This may be difficult to find. 

I'm John Lee Hooker Brings Together Classic Vee-Jay Hooker Recordings

Shout Factory continues its reissues from the legendary Vee-Jay Records catalog and has made available some classic recordings on CD. This is a reissue of the original album and does not appear to be augmented by alternate takes or additional songs. They reproduce the original liner notes and have some contemporary commentary as well. Sound is very good.

I’m John Lee Hooker was a 1959 compilation of the first sides that the great John Lee had waxed for Vee-Jay. Included are solo re-workings of In the Mood, Boogie Chillum, Hobo Blues and Crawlin’ King Snake that are compelling in their own way as he stomps the rhythm and playing his signature hypnotic guitar. Other tracks such as Dimples, Maudie, I Love You Honey and Time Is Marching, have him backed by a supportive ensemble who do quite a credible job in following Hooker’s often unusual song structures. Eddie Taylor’s guitar work is especially noteworthy on these and Jimmy Reed plays the harp on Time is Marching.

This is a most welcome reissue and the band sides are pretty strong as are his recreations of his earlier recordings.

This review originally appeared in the March 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 303). I believe I received my review copy from the publication. Here is John Lee Hooker performing on BBC around the time of these recordings.

Almost the Best of Guitar Shorty

David Kearney, best known as Guitar Shorty, was among the three major rediscoveries that Black top made (Robert Ward and Bobby Parker are the other two. The Florida born singer-guitarist was heavily influenced by Guitar Slim who made some choice recordings for Cobra Records and the LA based Pull label. For a period he was married to Jimi Hendrix’s stepsister and would swap ideas with the future legend. Kearney had recorded a wonderful My Way or the Highway for the English JSP label before joining Black Top where he recorded three albums, Topsy Turvy, Get Wise To Yourself, and Roll Over, Baby. After leaving Black Top, there were live albums on Collectables followed by Evidence’s I Go Wild and more recently he signed to Alligator.

Shout Factory’s The Best of Guitar Shorty: The Long and Short of It, is taken from the JSP album, the three Black top CD and the Evidence. It is not as consistent as the Black Top albums because Shorty’s latter albums (Especially the Evidence and Alligator are a bit too tailored for rock audiences and lack some of the subtle touches and superior bands used by Black Top). Even if Go Wild! is forgettable, the stunning remake of Hard Life, You Better Get Wise to Yourself, Swamp Dogg’s I Want to Report a Crime and a duet with Carol Fran, I’m So Glad I Met You. The two selections from the JSP disc, No Educated Woman and Red Hot Mama, are almost equal to the Black Top discs but using such first-rate players like Lee Allen Zeno on bass, Herman Ernest III, Shannon Powell or Raymond Weber on drums, David Torkanowsky on keyboards, Kaz Kazanoff on sax..

Oddly the only number from Black Top that had South Central, his working band of the nineties was a credible rendition of Hey Joe, a tribute to Hendrix which is ok, but there are some other selections that are missing, especially his rendition of Al Kooper’s I Love You More Than You Know, derived from Donny Hathaway’s recording. Hathaway was a major influence on Shorty as a singer, but you would never know it from most written about him that focus on his guitar playing and Hendrix connection. Given the more rock-oriented production of his recent recordings, his vocals also suffer.

But if this gem had replaced the tracks from the Evidence album, then the title would be more accurate as opposed to really being Almost The Best of Guitar Shorty. Still this will have to do until Topsy Turvy and Get Wise To Yourself are reissued. The JSP may still be in print.

This review originally appeared in the September-October 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 286). I likely received a review copy from a publicist. 

Freddie King Was Electrifying Live Performer

Freddie King was one of the greatest of the post-war Chicago bluesmen. A formidable singer and a highly important guitarist, he had a number of records on the charts and was a major influence on many blues and rock guitarists including Luther Allison (who took over King’s Chicago band and gigs when King toured), Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. While Bear Family has issued all of King’s commercial recordings on two box sets containing twelve CDs of music, King also had some significant live recordings. The following review appeared originally in the March 2006 DC Blues Calendar and the March-April 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (issue (280). I made minor stylistic changes in this review.


Its been three decades since the great Freddie King passed away, and the late blues guitar’s reputation has perhaps been lessened with the passing of time, which is unfortunate because few of the guitarists today play with his mix of passion and imagination.


Shout Factory has just issued Live at the Electric Ballroom, 1974, part of the label’s reconstruction of the Black Top label catalog. Recorded two years before his death, King rips through Women Across the River, which he recorded with Leon Russell; as well as blues chestnuts like Key to the Highway, Earl King’s Let the Good Times Roll, Ain’t Nobody’s Business, which he cut for Atlantic’s Cotillion subsidiary, Sweet Home Chicago and Dust My , before ending this set with Hide Away Medley.


This disc also includes an interview with him and two acoustic performances, perhaps his only acoustic recordings. King probably had the most immediate impact on rock guitar (Eric Clapton among others was heavily influenced by King’s muscular playing), and he was also a first rate singer who brought plenty of soul to his music. This is so nice to have available again.

I likely received this from a publicist for Shout Factory’s releases. This is still in print and should be readily available.