Eddie Taylor Jr's So Called Friends

One of several blues playing and singing children of the late Chicago blues guitarist legend Eddie Taylor, Eddie Taylor Jr. has followed in his father’s footsteps in playing the Delta rooted Chicago blues style that his father was known for. Taylor senior was best known as Jimmy Reed’s guitarist and worked/recorded with others including John Lee Hooker (on Bluesway), Harmonica Hinds and Carey Bell along with a number of fine recordings for Vee-Jay, Advent and other labels. Eddie Junior picked up much from his father and has been prominent amongst those old school Chicago blues musicians of today. He has recorded five albums for the Austrian Wolf label which has issued So Called Friends: His Best 15 Songs, compiled from those earlier releases along with five newly issued recordings. The selections derive from 5 different record dates with Eddie Jr. backed by brother Tim Taylor on drums along with Harmonica Hinds, Roosevelt Purifoy, Detroit Jr., Ken Barker, Johnny B Moore, and others. 

The first five selections are from a recent session with Purifoy and guitarist Anthony Palmer opening with Hound Dog Taylor’s Wild About You Baby, and includes the topical Welfare Blues, as well as a cover of Jimmy Rogers’ You Sweet. This latter number best suits Taylor Jr.’s introverted vocal approach as opposed to the rocking slide guitar Wild About You Baby, which misses the fervor of an Elmore James or the exuberance of Hound Dog Taylor. They are not bad performances, just that Taylor is strongest on certain material. If his vocals are on occasion bland, the music is wonderfully played classic Chicago blues. The title track is an original that borrows the music of Willie Mabon’s Poison Ivy, with Taylor singing that nobody can hurt one but one’s so-called friends with a nice guitar break.

From his prior sessions comes a number of nice performances including his reworking of a Sugar Pie DeSanto recording Use What You Got, as he sings how he keeps his woman satisfied. His father played on Jimmy Reed’s original of Upside Your Your Head, and Eddie Jr. does his father proud on a relaxed cover, as well as a rendition of Magic Sam’s Easy Baby. There is a relaxed shuffle version of Stop Breakin’ Down, on which his playing and singing evokes his father. His brother Larry contributed a nice philosophical slow blues Blues In Your Life, that suits his introverted vocal. Also nice is his rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson I’s My Little Machine, modeled after Jimmy Rogers’ recording. It sports nice slide guitar and strong playing from Harmonica Hinds. More slide is heard on a Shake Your Money Maker variant, Gotta Make This Money, as he tells us about playing his Gibson all around town.

If not always a compelling vocalist, Eddie Taylor Jr. is always engaging and his playing is terrific. So Called Friends is a welcome introduction to a Chicago blues singer and guitarist that does deserve to be better known amongst the general community of blues enthusiasts.

I purchased this CD. Here is Eddie Taylor Jr. in performance.

Willie Kent's Real Deal Blues Missed

The late Willie Kent was one of the most respected bass players in blues as well as a formidable band-leader and vocalist. I first became aware of him when he was with the late singer-guitarist Willie James Lyons as well as Left Dizz and pianist Big Moose John Walker. They made some memorable recordings for the French Isabel label which to my knowledge has not been reissued. Too Hurt To Cry is still listed in Delmark’s catalog and should be easy to find. I likely received a review copy at the time from Delmark. Willie Kent’s second outing for Delmark, Too Hurt To Cry, should win him some new fans. This album may be of interest to some for the presence of trumpeter Malachi Thompson, who leads a horn section on several of these recordings. Also, Billy Branch lends his harp voicings on several selections. Bassist-vocalist Kent handles all of the vocals on this album, unlike his earlier Delmark release that included vocalist Bonnie Lee. Kent is a very expressive, slightly gruff vocalist who tears into the lyrics. While most of this album is comprised of originals, the highlight is a superb reworking of Buddy Guy’s A Man and the Blues, with Branch and the horns framing the rock steady playing of Kent’s band. Thompson’s arrangement of the horns is first class, and Branch’s playing shows why he is among the most in demand session players around. While Kent contributes most of the originals, Bob James wrote the Blues Train (with Johnny B. Moore guesting on guitar) for which “you don’t need no ticket, just some heartache”, and poet Sterling Plumpp contributed the slow blues 911, (“..I can’t dial 9-1-1 for no pain”). Kent’s title track is a tough brooding blues which he particularly excels at, while his This Thing Called Love is a rocking shuffle with a riffing horn arrangement and more Johnny B. Moore guitar. The only mistake is Countdown- it sounds like the band’s closing number with Kent giving some of the rap he might give closing a set, thanking those playing on the recording. It doesn’t work on the disc. That aside, this is a first-rate set.