James Peterson Don’t Let The Devil Ride

James Peterson
Don’t Let The Devil Ride

Waldoxy



I remember the first time I saw James Peterson. It was a Main Street Buffalo, New York club, the Sunset Inn, and James led a quartet with a young teenage Lucky Peterson on keyboards, another son on drums and a bass player. There were a few bum notes but when James sang How Blue Can You get, or did a medley starting with Cummins Prison Farm, he would call out to someone in the club and get the crowd responding. While a capable guitarist, it was as a singer, that James grabbed me. Lucky’s a phenom, having natural pitch and a monster instrumentalist whose developing into a vocalist. But, even if James lacked his son’s gifts, he is a singer who grabs and holds the listener. 



Waldoxy has produced the first full album by James which showcases his singing with some funk grooves, although, oddly it is also the first of his albums on which his son does not play. James authored most of the songs with the title track offering a bit of folk wisdom at odds with the notion of the blues as the devil’s music. Children Gotta Eat is a nice soulful number which deals with a woman too busy providing for her children to realize her dreams, and James revives one of his best blues, I Need You At Home, that he recorded first when Lucky was a child prodigy. 



While It’s So Good may not have much of a lyric, it has a strong funk groove. Went Too Far, Stayed Too Long is an almost stereotypical, slow blues with fiery guitar (and Peterson fervently singing about how his woman blew their relationship). The album closes with some cautionary down-home, back-porch, philosophy from Peterson and George Jackson, Playin’ the Game, as he details his brother sitting in jail, and a girl raising a baby instead of being in school before stating “life could be better if you only play by the rules.” 



Producers Tommy Couch, Jr., and Paul Lee (who also contributes the solid drumming on the date) have put together what clearly is James Peterson’s strongest album. It’s about time people had a chance to hear just how good a singer James Peterson is, and maybe he’ll be known other than as Lucky’s dad. 



I likely received a review copy from the record company. This review appeared in the May-June 1995 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 202). Here is a short video of James Peterson performing.

 

James Peterson 1937-2010

James Peterson, whose career as a blues performer and a club owner spanned over 5 decades, passed away at the age of 73 on December 12, 2010. Born in Russell County, Alabama, I met James in Buffalo in 1976 where he was performing on Main Street at a club called the Sunset Inn. James had returned to the Buffalo area from Florida where he had moved for a couple years.  James had, before I first met him, owned  The Governor's Inn where he played regularly featuring his very young son Lucky on keyboards. The Governor's Inn also brought in some of the biggest names in the blues including Howlin' Wolf (and another time Wolf's band), Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Muddy Waters, Johnny Lee Hooker and too many more. When Lucky was like 5 or 6, Willie Dixon recorded him doing "1-2-3-4" and the father and son appeared on The Tonight Show.  A couple years later, James and Lucky recorded an album, "The Father, The Son, and the Blues."

I remember walking into the Sunset Inn on Main Street, not far from downtown Buffalo in 1976, and was floored by James' blues. Lucky, then 13, was on keyboards as James sang and played guitar on a range of material from Muddy, B.B. and others, but lending his own stamp. Lucky only played that first set as he had to go to bed, but listening to James sing "Cummins Prison Farm," calling out to the patrons and they responding was something to see. It was similar to how B.B. King and his audience fed off each other at the Regal Theatre, if on a smaller scale.

I met him at the break and we became friends. I was doing a blues program on WBFO-FM and had James and Lucky come in to perform at the Station during a fundraiser as well as a live radio remote broadcast from the original Tralfamadore Cafe in Buffalo. Watching James perform was always a wonderful time. He was a steady, if unspectacular guitarist, but his vocals and his ability to interact with his audience is something rare among blues performers thirty years later. Peterson's vocals were similar to those of blues legend, Johnny Copeland. In Fall, 1977, he opened the New Governor's Inn in Buffalo which he operated for a few more years there, returned south to Florida near Tampa.

Lucky in the subsequent years became established as a band leader with Bobby Bland and then Little Milton, before commencing his own solo career. James continued to perform, and more importantly started recording for several labels including a couple of memorable albums for Malaco's Waldoxy subsidiary. Don't Let the Devil Ride and Preachin' the Blues. These releases led him to tour extensively and play a number of festivals. I remember the opening of his set at the Pocono Blues Festival as riding down on a ski lift, he was playing and singing through radio microphones.

His last recording may have been the 2004 JSP release, If You Can't Fix It, that was billed as by James & Lucky Peterson, but on which James handled all of the vocals, while his multi-talented son played a variety of instruments in support. This showed he remained a strong, powerful singer. I was fortunate to have known him and found him to be every bit as nice and gracious a person as he was an outstanding blues performer.

Condolences go to his son, Lucky and Lucky's family.

For more on James:
PW Fenton on his website, bluesland.net posted a memory of James along with a cool picture of him.

Lucky Peterson Roots ComeBack Should Have Been Funkier!

This writer was living in Buffalo and doing a blues show on the University of Buffalo’s station WBFO, at the time I first saw and heard Lucky Peterson. He was playing keyboards behind his father, James Peterson, at a club on Main Street near downtown Buffalo. He was a teenager then, not the pre-teen that had appeared on the Tonight Show and recorded singles and an album. His talent was evident every time I heard him as part of his father’s band, including a couple of performances that were fundraisers for the station. One could not help but be impressed by his musicianship. I remember his dad telling me Lucky had perfect pitch. In the years since I left Buffalo I would hear about James and Lucky. Lucky had a break as he played in the bands of Bobby Bland and Little Milton, touring with them overseas and playing on their recordings, before recording for KingSnake I believe, and then he had an album on Alligator that was produced by KingSnake I believe. He continued to perform and over the years he was one of the artists that signed to Verve-Gitanes where he produced three of the finest blues recordings of recent years mixing in funk and classic soul with straight blues. Also on Verve, he accompanied the great Mavis Staples on a great album devoted to the music of Mahalia Jackson. Then he had a disc on Dreyfus that continued in the same vein as his Verve albums. Since then, he has also recorded for small independent labels like JSP, and also had publicized personal issues including substance abuse. Reportedly (and thankfully), he has placed these demons behind him.

Dreyfus Records has just issued Lucky’s latest album, “You Can Always Turn Around,” and the title and some of the songs have a reflective side as they deal with struggle and change. This recording was produced in the Catskills with some of the Woodstock musicians including Larry Campbell, Scott Petito and Gary Burke and the flavor is quite different from Lucky’s prior recordings. “Dust My Broom,” opens and if Lucky, who is playing a dobro here, sings forcefully (although a little over the top at times) it is hardly an original performance and the version of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues,” which seems like an unplugged adaptation of the Allman Brothers recording which itself was derived from Taj Mahal’s recording on his eponymously titled disc over forty years ago. Its hard to get excited with these covers. The cover of Reverend Gary Davis’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” strikes this listener as a much stronger performance.

Bill Callahan’s “I’m New Here” has a lyric about being new around town but musically its far from the blues and a bit more gentle vocal, spoken at times on a folky-sounding tune. “Trouble,” penned by Ray LaMontagne, has some really nice piano by Peterson as he sings about trouble been bothering his soul since the day he was born, worry not leave his mind alone until he was saved by a woman. The sparse backing helps his vocal stand out here. “Trampled Rose,” was co-written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, opens with Lucky sounding like someone calling believers to prayers and while the lyrics touch on themes of hurt and hurting others, it comes off off-kilter to these ears. Lucky picks up the electric guitar and with heavy fuzztone and a bit over-the-top singing for Lucinda Williams’ “Atonement,” that strikes this listener as pretentious. While he switches to steel guitar (dobro), the rendition of the late Bobby Charles’ “Why Are People Like That,” also sounds too forced. “Four Little Boys,” is a bit more low-key and this song he wrote his his father James, with the “Forty Four Blues” riff incorporated in its melody is a more appealing performance. The outstanding track here is the wonderful rendition of “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,” where there is a wonderful duet with Lucky’s wife, Tamara. His piano shines on this track as well and they do justice to this number that is identified with the great Nina Simone. Curtis Mayfield’s “Think” closes this album with steel guitar and acoustic slide giving this instrumental a country flavor.

“You Can Always Turn Around” certainly represents a change from Lucky Peterson from prior recordings, and not necessarily for the better here. Not that the performances are terrible, but few of the performances are distinctive and stand out in the fashion of Peterson’s earlier recordings that were more grounded in soul and funk. And while some have suggested this album showcases Lucky’s singing, one might suggest these really haven’t listened to Lucky’s earlier recordings because he always has shown himself to be an excellent vocalist. Still, it is nice to have a new Lucky Peterson recording available, even if it is not among his best work.


The advance review copy was sent by the firm handling publicity for this release.