JAMES HARMAN Mo’ Napkins Please: ...Strictly the Blues... Vol.2

Sad to hear about James Harman's passing. Here is a review from 2000 that I have not previously posted.

JAMES HARMAN

Mo’ Napkins Please: ...Strictly the Blues... Vol.2 

CANNONBALL (2000)

James Harman has built a well-deserved following with his strong blues vocals, harp playing, and songwriting. Cannonball has just issued this new album of recordings from the 80s, that come from the same 1984-1987 sessions that produced Strictly the Blues...Extra Napkins: Vol. 1. These sessions reunited him with some alumni of his band as well as other top-rated West Coast performers including guitarists Hollywood Fats, Junior Watson, and Kid Ramos; pianists Gene Taylor and Fred Kaplan; bassists Willie J. Campbell and Larry Taylor; and drummer Jimi Bott. 

The tunes are a collection of classics and originals that are modeled on classic blues recordings. The title track is a hot shuffle with some Little Walter-styled harp as Junior Watson rips off a Willie Johnson-inspired solo as the tune evokes Howlin’ Wolf’s Memphis recordings. "Annalee", dedicated to Tommy Johnson and Robert Nighthawk, is a Harman original lyric with Kid Ramos’ guitar adding some Texas flavor to the number. "Too Much Family," a rocking lament about his in-laws overcrowding the house features some terrific Hollywood Fats guitar, also in a Willie Johnson mode, who trades eights with drummer Stephen Taylor Hodges. "Icepick’s Pawnshop Blues," based on the "Forty Four Blues," has Harman lay down harp and his vocal is accompanied only by Fred Kaplan’s piano and Hodges on drums. Mix in these distinctive Harman originals with first-rate covers of The Five Royales’ "(Feel Like) Messin’ Up," Champion Jack Dupree’s "Shim Sham Shimmy," Gatemouth Brown’s "Dirty Work at the Crossroads," and Lightnin’ Hopkins’ "Jake-Head Boogie." The latter tune finds him backed only by Kid Ramos’ guitar evoking the King of Dowling Street’s memory quite effectively. Gene Taylor has a boogie-woogie feature, "The Falcon’s Nest," that showcases his ability to tickle the ivories.

By the time the album closes with an acoustic reprisal of the title track, one is satiated with the musical delights here.

This review is from the May-June 2000 Jazz & Blues Report. I likely received a review copy from Cannonball Records or a publicist. I have made minor grammatical edits to the original review. Here he performs "Extra Napkins."