THE JIMMY DAWKINS BAND - BLISTERSTRING - DELMARK DS 641

Here is another of my reviews from the 1970s from the Buffalo Jazz Report.  The following review appeared in the December 1976 issue and I likely received a review copy from Delmark. It is currently available on CD. Above is the LP cover.

Jimmy Dawkins is one of the most original and important blues artists to emerge in the past few years. His first album Fast Fingers (Delmark DS-623) won the Grand Prix du Disque de Jazz awarded by the Hot Club of France, sort of like winning a Grammy, and his second album All For Business (DS-634) with Otis Rush, among the musicians, has to be one of the best blues albums of the 1970s. Jimmy's third Delmark alhum is good, of not up to the level of the first two, and a much better modem blues album than the Albert King album reviewed elsewhere. 

CD Cover For Blisterstring

This is Jimmy's first album with his working band and where he can control over production along with Delmari's Steve Thomashefsky. One main problem is that a few sides drag a little long, and Jimmy's playing, hard and driving as ever gets repetitious at points. I found it difficult sitting through this whole album, a problem I didn't have with the earlier two. Still there is some great music here, my favorite track being the closer Welfare Line with great lyrics and Jimmy making good use of both rhythmical and tonal effects in his playing. Also outstanding is a cooking version of Kenny Burrell's Chitlins Con Carne, and Blue Monday, an old New Orleans R'n'B tune associated with Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis which is partially a tribute to them. 

One other problem with the album is a somewhat distant quality to the recording. I don't like how the drummer was recorded. Still Jimmy Dawkins deserves your attention as a serious artist who the Downbeat Critics voted in 1974 Talent Deserving Wider Recognition.