Cash McCall -Blues Coming Down/ One Who's Got a Lot

Cash McCall -Blues Coming Down/ One Who's Got a Lot - Nola Blue Records

Morris Dollison, Jr., better known as Cash McCall, passed away in 2019, after the release of a Nola Blue Records album with Benny Turner, "Going Back Home." Nola Blue previously issued one half of this single, "One Who's Got a Lot," as a download in 2020. On January 29, 2021, they are issuing "Blues Coming Down." Both were recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Jim Koeppel, with a band that included Koeppel on guitar, pianist Tennyson Stephens, bassist Welton Gite, and drummer James Gadson. Added on "Blues Coming Down" are Rajiv Halim on tenor saxophone and John Christy on the Hammond B3.

"Blues Coming Down" is a solid, straight-forward slow blues with some raspy tenor sax, Koeppel's taut guitar solo, and McCall's gritty vocal. The melody of "One Who's Got a Lot" has a Malaco feel (think "Down Home Blues" and "Someone Is Steppin' In") and an emphatic groove with more direct singing and more searing guitar from Koeppel. Stephens piano is first-rate in support, and Gite and Gadson push the performance forward. Nothing earth-shattering, perhaps, but this is an entertaining, substantial addition to Cash McCall's musical legacy.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is "Blues Coming Down."