George 'Harmonica' Smith's Tribute To Little Walter Is Blues With a Feeling

An import reissue of the late George ‘Harmonica’ Smith’s first album, Blues With A Feeling - A Tribute To Little Walter (BGO) is welcome both for lovers of blues harmonica and the late blues giant. Smith was at the time in one of his stints with the Muddy Waters Band who back him as “The Chicago Blues Band” on a collection of performances that mostly derived from the recordings of the great little Walter Jacobs. The Muddy Waters Band of this time included Otis Spann on piano, Muddy Waters and Luther Johnson on guitar, Little Sonny Wimberly on bass and S.P. Leary on drums. On most of this recording they were also joined by Marshall Hooks, a guitarist who gigged with Smith and recorded with him on Smith’s singles for various Los Angeles based labels.

Of the original eleven selections, only West Helena Woman was not associated with Little Walter, who had died months prior to this recording. It had been a song Smith had recorded several times prior, but like the other performances here was a stunning sample of the classic Chicago blues sound. From the opening moments of Mellow Down Easy, this is classic Chicago blues as represented by the Waters Band. Spann is brilliant in support (listen to his accompaniment on Can’t Hold Out Much Longer while Smith sings and plays in a robust manner. His full-bodied tone on this perhaps is not as clean as Walter was on his best recordings, but had a sharpness to it. Another outstanding selection is the reworking of Last Night, which is a stunning slow blues performance that stands up well to Walter’s original.

Not included on the original vinyl album release (which I purchased when it was originally issued) is a terrific rendition of Goin’ Down Slow, with some stinging guitar fills and a brief break by Muddy Waters. Another bonus selection is Little Walter’s Just a Feelin’. The album closes with an excellent vocal by Lucille Spann, Love With a Feelin’. Smith sits out on this selection which like the music on the Smith recording has some of the feel of Otis Spann’s Bluesway album The Bottom of the Blues that the Muddy Waters Band played on and which Lucille sang on some selections.

The original Pete Welding album notes are included along with new notes by Tony Russell which includes an interview from Steve LaVere who produced the LP with Welding about how the session came about. Russell adds perspective on how this release was received at the time and Smith’s subsequent recording career. Sound is quite good and this reissue of some classic Chicago blues is overdue and quite welcome.

I purchased this CD. Here is a little video of George 'Harmonica' Smith performing.

Strong Recorded Memories of William Clarke's Early Years

The following review appeared in the September/October 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 286) and is another of older reviews (slightly revised) that I believe is forth sharing several years later. William Clarke was one of my favorite blues performers and person. I had a chance to talk and chat with him pretty much every time I saw him perform and he loved talking about blues as much as playing it. He was also someone who sounded different every time I saw him depending on his mood and what inspired him that day. We should be grateful for his widow Jeannette Clarke-Lodovici who still continue to keep his legacy alive. I recommend his Alligator releases of course, but the previously unissued and reissued Watchdog releases are generally excellent as well. I had purchased these and they are still available. It’s been way too long since William Clarke passed away. While his Alligator recordings are central to his recorded legacy, his widow, Jeannette Clarke-Lodovici continues to supplement that body of music with previously unissued recordings. Two volumes of Clarke’s The Early Years, have been issued on Watchdog Records, and will certainly be of considerable interest to fans of Clarke, modern blues harp and the West Coast mix of jump and Chicago blues. Clarke certainly sang with as much authority and conviction as he played the harmonica with his big fat tone (on regular harp as well as on chromatic harmonica), showing the influence of his mentor, the late George ‘Harmonica’ Smith. Smith is heard on both of the two volumes with playing on a terrific untitled slow blues on Volume 2, while Clarke’s harp is heard behind Smith’s vocal on Teenage Girl on Volume 1. Others who make guest appearances here include Smokey Wilson on Fine Little Mama on Volume 1 and Johnny Dyer on Volume 2. A bonus on Volume 1 is the presence of Hollywood Fats on six tracks including Clarke’s easy rocking instrumental in the vein of Off the Wall, Hittin’ Heavy, the slow midnight after hours feel of a feature for his chromatic playing, Blues Afterwhile, as well as the imaginative rearrangement of Sonny Boy Williamson II’s Keep It To Yourself, set to the Help Me/Green Onions melody. Volume 2 sports his interpretation of Louis Jordan’s Early in the Morning, and his strong singing on The Feeling’s Gone, and Bloody Tears on My Pillow. Clarke was superb, not simply as a singer and harp player, but also was a fabulous songwriter. These latest two posthumous discs are more than welcome additions to the available recordings by Clarke. The both contain a number of superb performances. The only quibble is the CD packaging could be printed a bit more sharply, but the music is wonderful. This is available from bluebeatmusic.com as well as amazon.com and other mail order specialists. Here is a little clip of William Clarke performing.

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.

Super Black Blues Was True Super Session

As the review in Blues Unlimited noted about the original vinyl release of SuperBlack Blues, the recording of Otis Spann, Big Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker was a true super session that lived up to this label. Recorded in October 1969 and released on (Bob Thiele’s) BluesTime label in 1969-1970, it has finally appeared on compact disc on BMG France.


There are three long tracks on which Turner, Walker and Spann (on two tracks) each take some of the vocal spotlight with a little bit of kidding between Turner and Walker, and one ballad, Here I am Broken Hearted, which is sung by Turner. In between the vocals, Walker, Spann, tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts and George "Harmonica" Smith take solos, all of which are nicely delivered and lack the self-indulgent mediocrity found on many more highly publicized supersessions.


Despite the informal feel of these performances, this album is a gem with a wonderful rhythm section of guitarist Arthur Wright, bassist Ron Brown and drummer Paul Humphrey that push the groove while still swinging. Its hard to believe that Spann was dead half a year after this was recorded as his playing and vocals here sound so vital while everybody else is also at the top of the game. As Joe Turner sings on the aptly titled Blues Jam, it was a lovely party and everybody had a ball and that good time comes across with great vitality nearly three and a half decades later.

This review appeared in the September 2003 DC Blues Calendar, then the DC Blues Society’s newsletter. There was a second volume with Leon Thomas and Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson and Leon Thomas replacing Spann and Smith, which I have not listened to, but it would be a completely different feel than the mix of down home blues and uptown blues on the earlier album. Unfortunately this may be hard to find as a CD or vinyl album, but it is worth the search, and hopefully it will get reissued again. Jams this good are rare.

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.