That Houserocking Slide Guitarist Lil Ed Williams

This is the text of an article I wrote about Lil Ed that appeared in the August 1998 DC Blues Calendar, the the newsletter of the DC Blues Society. Ed was one of the featured artists at the 1998 DC BLues Festival, and this article was to promote that appearance. I believe I interviewed Ed when he was appearing at Bethesda Maryland's Twist & Shout, a club memorialized in a Mary Chapin Carpenter song. Twist & Shout unfortunately closed many years ago. All the photos are from the 2009 Pocono Blues Festival at Big Boulder Ski Area in Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania. © Ron Weinstock.

There are certain sounds that characterize the blues, and slide guitar is one of them. particularly in the vein of the legendary Elmore James who made a number of pioneering recordings in the fifties and early sixties including Dust My Broom, The Sky Is Crying, and Shake Your Moneymaker. James’ houserocking style has been emulated by countless blues players including Hound Dog Taylor, J.B. Hutto, and Homesick James. One of the modern masters of this tradition is Lil' Ed Williams, nephew of the late J.B. Hutto, who tears into his blues with the ferocious joy that marked his uncle's music. Williams will bring his houserocking music to this year’s D.C. Blues Festival.

A Chicago native, Ed is 42 years old, and he takes great pride in playing in the vein of his uncle. “My uncle was J.B. Hutto. He taught me basically everything |know. He'd come around and play for the family.”Growing up, Ed remembers listening to a lot of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and a lot of the older guys on records. “My uncle introduced me to his first album, which the one I know of, “Hawk Squat. That really fascinated me. We sat down and we played it over and over and over. He laughed about it.“

He remembered parties in the yard where J.B. and his band would come by and play. "My family, my aunts, my uncles. We had a really big backyard, and they would get out there and Uncle J.B. came over with his band. ° They would barbecue and just have cases of beer, and whiskey, and they'd be out there. It was all dirt yard. And they'd be out there — kicking that dirt up.

... He'd be playing so loud everybody in the neighborhood came aon by. Everybody coming in and we stayed. like our house was this side of big yard. And right by us was a big, they call it a honeymoon building then, but it was a big project, and there was an alley between us. And people would line up in this alley coming up to the fence shaky their bodies. It was so wonderful and you know I was real young then. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old. And I thought it was  the most wonderful thing in the world. | wish I could do this."

Too young to get into the clubs his uncle played (Wise Fool or Biddy Milligan’s), the he name often would sneak him in. "Paing a mustache on me, put a big wide hat on me , sneak me in." At the time was playing with Lee Jackson on second guitar, J.D, Buckner on drums and Bombay Carter on bass. It was fascinating to see him play, step on a stage with 100 foot chords. ... A lot easier without a child, but the chord is much more because people get involved, make sure you don’t trip."

When 17, Ed played in a soul group, displaying an unusual chording technique he learned from from Hutto. “This one guy used to play a lot of Temptations, Aretha Franklin, stuff like that. | wind up trying to do chords for him, but by me (being) an unorthodox player, my chords for him was not the same as his and he got upset with me. But it was the same chord, but I wouldn't do it the way (he wanted). He told me I was playing right, he couldn’t understand that when I do the chord, it sounded like his but I was doing like him, but doing a different motion.”

Ed started playing blues around 19. “I started forming my own band. I was going with a girl and her brother. I teached him to play drums ‘cause I knew how to play drums. That was my first instrument, was drums." As a drummer he was self-taught. “I did not look to anybody, I just used to listen to J.B.’s drummer when they came over to play. That’s where I got me feel from.”

Ed writes a lot of material but leaves a lot of room for his band members to develop their parts. He may add a bass part “and my brother, he'll take it (and from it). I like them to improvise themselves. I like them to take control of what they want to do and that way it all blends together. When you have to real deal with a person all you have to a special run, then it gets to be more work, but when they can improvise it and play it the way they feel it, then it’s fun.”

He also doesn't spend too much time rehearsing tunes. “The way I do me it, I kinda surprise my guys. I'll come up with something and I'll let them hear it one time and before they know it, I'll lay it on them.”

Ed’s first recording was for an Alligator anthology Roughousin' that came out in the 1980's, but the session led to a release of a full album. He recalled how it happened. "| used to see Bruce (Iglauer) come in. We used to play at BLUES on Halstead. And he used to come in.He just come in and walk out. But I didn't know who this guy was. My old rhythm player, Dave Weld, know who he was. Dave would grab me by the arm, 'There’s Bruce, There’s Bruce from Alligator records.' I said 'So what man. You know just a man.’

One day Bruce came in real late that night. We were finishing off the last song. He came up, walked up to me. "How ya doing?' 'Yeah, how ya doing?' He introduced himself. I shook his hand.He said, 'How do you guys feel about coming down to the studio and do a collection song.' 'Sure.' Dave was having a fit. Dave knew what was going on. We knew we wanted to make a record. We were going to save our money and go into one of those studios and own the collection. That was me Dave was talking about. I had no construction, no idea what this was all about.

So the next morning we had to get up real early that morning.  | never forget it. I had to go to work. I was working at the car wash and I had to leave the car wash I think at about 10 or 11 o'clock. Pookie was working the car wash, he had to leave and Dave and our drummer met us at the studio. We walked in with our car wash suits on and Bruce laughed and we said we looked funny and we all laughed.

I was kinda shaky. I was kinda scared. so we got in and we started warming up. Bruce said, 'Well, do something.' I had already been writing songs at that point and I started playing some of the old-time stuff that I learned from B.B., Muddy, all then guys. He said, 'That's good. What about some of your stuff.' And I started playing my stuff and everybody that was in the studio started clapping, having a good time and I got excited ‘cause it was like I was in a club. And I started to doing my club antics walking around, walking on my toes, crawling on my knees ‘cause we were all having fun.

“I had never heard studio sound. That’s what really got to me, ‘cause I never heard it coming from. the headphones sounding so good. Sounded really good. Bruce came out after we did 5 or 6 songs. 'You know it sounds real good. Let’s do an album. OK.' Right then, I freaked out. That was the happiest day of my life. ... We cut 30 songs in 3 hours.”

When I mentioned some acts do 4 songs in 3 hours Ed told me about someone once asked him about artists who do a lot of overdubbing and whatever. “I said well that’s their thing, if that's what they want to do. But to me, for me, Number one, time is money. Number two by me working in the car wash I've got that fecling of getting my job done. “Cause I was buffer. So I had to finish, I had to buff cars in 15 minutes. I had to buff it, and detail it In 30 minutes, So that’s the way I work even in the studio, get it done.” If a take is not right they'll try it again not overdub it. However, if they do it three times and still  can't get it right, they drop that song. “Cause you're going to lose it. Not gonna sound no better, it's only gonna get worse. The more you play it, the more you get tired of it.”

Ed has recorded four albums, three for Alligator, and when we spoke in June, was getting ready  to do another album for Alligator. Musically he continues to grow. "I'm improvising more, more different lyrics cause I'm listening to everybody. Then I was just  listening to Muddy Waters. John Lee Hooker, Elmore James. But I'm a music type of guy and I listen to all types. … I've got some stuff I'm working on in [a reggae] groove. When I do songs like that, put those types of tunes. I want to make my own so I have to really improvise, feel it out, You know I got into Chuck Berry about two months ago and I already came up with a couple songs in his style. I've got into Ruth Brown. I see her on the boat when I was on the boat going to the Bahamas. It amazed to see this woman,'cause I never hear her before. However, my wife know who this was. All I knew was about Etta James, Koko Taylor, Billie Holiday. How did I miss Ruth Brown. She is fantastic. I do one of her songs, 'If you want to live happy, don't listen to your so-called friends.' | do that."

While J.B. Hutto is Ed's biggest influence, he only has recorded Hutto's 20% Alcohol. "What I really want to do is make a tribute album to him, because I  know all his songs." J.B. influenced Ed not simply as a guitarist but also as a singer. He mentioned others, "I like Muddy Waters. That's why I hit those deep tones. And stuff like thal.”

Ed got the opportunity to play with J.B. once before his uncle passed at a club Vegetable Biddies in Indiana, "It was so wonderful. he was walking on tables and he gave me a long chord too and he made me jump off the stage. It was just great. I said then. I told him I wanted to play. One thing he told me, ‘You promise me your gonna keep the blues alive then I'll teach you.’ He did. I promised him that and he said 'You keep my tradition going, cause you’re the next one In line' He knew that."

Here is Lil Ed Williams and the Blues Imperials in performance from a Blues Festival in 2008.

J.B. Hutto - Stompin' at Mother Blues

J.B. Hutto - Stompin' at Mother Blues  - Delmark

The late J.B. Hutto was among the most gifted of those slide guitarists who were heavily indebted to the legendary Elmore James. The Georgia-born Hutto played a fierce broom dusting slide mixed with his powerful vocals that probably are best  captured on the first volume of the classic series, “Chicago, The Blues Today.” Delmark has just released a new cd of previously unissued tracks, Stompin' at Mother Blues, that makes available a complete session with the same band (bassist Herman Hassell and drummer Frank Kirkland) that appeared on those celebrated recordings and six recordings from a 1972 session with Lee Jackson on second guitar, Elbert Buckner on bass and Bombay Carter on drums. 

From the first session, only “Hip Shakin’” (heard here) was previously issued on Hutto's first Delmark album, “Hawk Squat,” while of the six tracks (along with some studio chatter) come from the session that produced “Slidewinder,” three are unissued, two alternate takes and one was issued on Delmark Records - 50 Years of Jazz and Blues. The two sessions were done during the day at the now-defunct Mother Blues.

There are some exceptional tracks here as on the opening “Evening Train,” with its “Dust My Broom” riff and Hutto's insistent vocal while on other tracks, the backing does not seem as balanced as on “My Soul” and the rendition of “Alcohol Blues” is not as charged as Hutto and the Hawks' performance on “Chicago The Blues Today.” One of the performances, “If You Change Your Mind,” was recut with a slightly different band including pianist Sunnyland Slim for the “Hawk Squat” album, and was stronger than this earlier recording, which is by no means poor. “Married Woman Blues” and “Sorry,” have strong vocals although the backing is not as crisp as this band was at its best. With respect to the 1972 tracks, Hutto is upfront as always, but the band seems more in the background and not nearly as sympathetic accompanists. None of these tracks comes close to the level of the chilling original “Too Late,” which was a highlight of “Slidewinder.” 

This is a release more for blues slide guitar fans and Hutto completists. For those not familiar with J.B. Hutto, you should get  “Chicago The Blues Today Volume 1” (which also has excellent Junior Wells and Otis Spann) and “Hawk Squat” before this release.

This review originally appeared in the November-December 1999 Jazz & Blues Report. I have made minor stylistic changes. I likely received a review copy from Delmark. Here is a vintage clip of J.B. Hutto.

Take 5 With Tampa Red

Hudson Whittaker, known as Tampa Red, was one of the most popular and most recorded blues artists of the Twenties through the early 1950s. He was known as a guitarist, kazoo player and one of the blues greatest songwriters.

We start this brief celebration of his music with a bit of Hokum he did with Georgia Tom Dorsey, "It's Tight Light That."

Next up is "Black Angel Blues." Lucille Bogan recorded this first, but it was Tampa Red's recording that more directly influenced later blues recordings by the likes of Robert Nighthawk and B.B. King (who did this as "Sweet Little Angel."). Note Tampa Red's immaculate slide guitar that would be echoed in the guitar of Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker.

Among his most celebrated songs is "It Hurts Me Too" also known as "When Things Go Wrong." Elmore James later made a famous recording of this song.

Another signature song of Tampa Red was "Love Her With a Feeling," later performed by a number of other great blues artists such as Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Junior wells.

We close this brief playlist with one of Tampa Red's last commercial recordings, "Evalena" with Little Johnnie Jones on piano, Walter Horton on harmonica, Ransom Knowling on bass and Odie Payne on drums. I believe Willie Lacey plays the dazzling electric guitar on this.

Perhaps sometimes soon, I will return with another Tampa Red playlist.

J.B. Hutto and the Hawks Squat

The latest classic Delmark blues CD to received an expanded, deluxe treatment is J.B. Hutto & His Hawks, "Hawk Squat." Hawk Squat is perhaps my favorite J.B. Hutto album and one I have been listening to since it was initially released back in the later sixties. Backing J.B. were Sunnyland Slim on keyboards; Herman Haskell on guitar for one track; Lee Jackson on guitar for six songs (8 tracks); Junior Pettis or Dave Myers on bass; Frank Kirkland on drums; and Maurice McIntyre on saxophone for one session. The original twelve tracks are supplemented by one new song and alternates of four selections (one song has two alternates).

J.B. Hutto was an Elmore James disciple, yet only on "Speak Your Mind," does he employ the familiar "Dust My Broom" lick, but in the context of his own song. His forceful vocals and take no prisoner slide guitar are strongly supported by Sunnyland's organ which also provides some additional musical coloring. Their are two alternates to this track, the more interesting one is a slowed down rendition that closes this reissue. In contrast, with  typical Sunnyland Slim piano, "If You Change Your Mind," has Hutto playing  tough slide to support his powerful singing. It should not be lost that J.B.'s was a first-rate songwriter as heard on "Too Much Pride." Here J.B. sings about having too much pride to beg his woman to stay. This is the first track to have McIntyre's saxophone and it is fascinating to listen to how responsive his playing, behind J.B.'s vocals, was.

The declamatory vocal delivery on "Too Much Alcohol" is followed by the slide guitar boogie "Hip Shakin'," and then the "The Feeling is Gone"  about "feeling like crying but the tears would not come down," as his keen slide complements his vocal. They do not simply write or play blues like this anymore. "Hawk Squat" is a raucous number as J.B. introduces everybody who take short solos. It is almost a blues equivalent of Louis Armstrong's "Gut Bucket Blues." "I'll Cry Tomorrow" is the one new selection, and is a slow blues with nice interplay between Hutto and Lee Jackson and followed by the alternate takes.

In addition to the previously unissued material, Bob Koester provides new notes in the accompanying booklet that supplement the original liner notes. The booklet are contains a number of previously unissued photos from Turner's, then J.B. Hutto's home base, and the recording sessions. The original recording was selected for the Blues Hall of Fame in 2013, and the music still resonates strongly over forty-five years after first listening to it. J.B. Hutto's music was direct, not fancy, and full of heart and "Hawk Squat" was one of his finest recordings.

I received my review copy from Delmark and a review appeared in Jazz & Blues Report Issue 361. Here is a clip of J.B. Hutto from the film Chicago Blues.

When My Mama Was Living Is Choice Louisiana Red

In the 1970s when Kent Cooper first met the late Louisiana Red, Red was working at the Bayonne (New Jersey) Barrel Company and had given up music as the way to support his family. Red had recorded prior to that including an album for the Atlantic Atco subsidiary. Cooper wrote some songs including Sweet Blood Call, and Red recorded some of Cooper’s as well as his own that led to the critically acclaimed Sweet Blood Call and other albums on Blue Labor which also issued albums by Johnny Shines, Roosevelt Sykes and Peg Leg Sam during this period. Red’s career continued for many years, and he continued to record relatively regularly in the past couple decades with the recordings have a consistent quality despite variations in the musical settings and supporting musicians. When Louisiana Red passed, he was rightfully regarded as a great blues artist who had been a heir to the legacies of Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Labor Records has issued a new CD, When My Mama Was Living, that brings together 16 tracks comprised of one track issued on CD for first time and the rest being previously unissued selections or unissued alternate takes. On these selections he is sometimes backed by either Peg Leg Sam or Lefty Dizz with the exception of three tracks Peg Leg Sam is featured on. There is variety in the musical settings that add to the listenability of these performances.

While these may have not been issued previously, there is plenty of strong blues to be heard. Red was in strong vocal form at the time and put so much into delivering the lyrics. Walk All Over Georgia sets the tone backed only by his harmonica followed by his interpretation of Slim Harpo’s King Bee, where he plays spare trebly guitar and overdubbed harmonica. The title track is another selection where his harmonica provides the sole accompaniment and throws in an occasional whoop to accent the lyrics. 

Bad Case of the Blues is one of several selections that finds Red playing the manner of Lightnin’ Hopkins followed by a solo Peg Leg Sam Piedmont harmonica blues Little Susie James. Lefty Dizz adds support behind Red’s slide on Got a Girl With a Dog Won’t Bark, which adapts the melody of Shake Your Money Maker. Red’s playing on this previously unissued alternate take is a bit tentative sounding to this listener. Cold White Sheet is another Hopkins’ styled blues as he sings about can’t stand the city no more and would rather die on a southland farm, while Going Back to Georgia adapts the 44 Blues melody for his lyric about leaving those Northern gals behind.

You’ve Got To Move is the traditional sacred number in the style of Fred McDowell with Peg Leg Sam adding harmonica behind Red’s slide with Jim Robinson adding a second vocal. Peg Leg Sam sounds feisty on I'll Be Glad When You Are Dead You Rascal You, with plenty of crying harmonica. Cooper and Red’s Cold, Cold Feeling is another traditionally grounded blues strongly performed in the vein of Lightnin’ Hopkins. Red accompanies Peg Leg Sam on his spirited John Henry. This album closes with Red’s “Joanna.” This was recorded with a small group at WKCR and Red lays down nice slide guitar adding a some spoken interjections to his vocal.

This writer has long been fond of the Blue Labor Louisiana Red recordings and this new release of unissued songs and alternate takes is most welcome. Louisiana Red was in quite fine form during this period and When My Mama Was Living certainly stands up as an excellent release that lovers of down home blues will certainly appreciate.

I received a review copy from a publicist for the release. Here is a video of him in his Elmore James mood.

Elmore James Shook His Money Maker

One of the greatest bluesmen of all time, Elmore James is the subject of a new collection of his later recordings on the reactivated Buddah label, Shake Your Money Maker - The Best Of The Fire Recordings. The Mississippi blues legend of course is known for his electric juke joint recording of Robert Johnson’s Dust My Broom for Trumpet Records, but over the course of the next twelve years, his music developed into a somewhat more urbane style that also clearly showed a debt not simply to Johnson, but also to Robert Nighthawk. What is also lost is the fact he was a great blues singer who sang with great urgency and power. John Broven’s liner notes describe the background of James’ career, and based on his interview of legendary record producer Bobby Robinson, details how Robinson, in Chicago for business, came across James playing in a club, leading to James recording The Sky is Crying, which helped rejuvenate his career. This album contains many of the choicest selections of James’ recordings for Robinson with the possible exception of One Way Out. In addition to the title track there are such other gems as Look on Yonder’s Wall, Stranger’s Blues (set to the Rolling and Tumbling melody), Done Somebody Wrong, Nighthawk’s Anna Lee, Something Inside Me (perhaps his finest slow, brooding blues), and first rate reworkings of earlier recordings Dust My Broom, and Standing at the Crossroads. The package is wonderfully mastered and is a must for anyone who lacks prior releases of this material. The James is the first significant blues reissue on Buddah, which apparently is becoming the major reissue imprint for BMG. This review originally appeared in the July/August 2001 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 252) and the April 2001 DC Blues Calendar, then the DC Blues Society’s newsletter. This review was written before Steven Franz’s excellent biography of Elmore James The Amazing Secret History of Elmore James that states that Elmore deserves as much credit as Johnson for Dust My Broom, and that he did more than simply update Johnson’s recording.

Lil ‘Ed & The Blues Imperials Jump Start Their Houserocking Blues

Alligator Records has just released the labels eighth album by Lil ‘Ed & The Blues Imperials, “Jump Start. Only Magic Slim and the Teardrops has a lengthier tenure of playing down classic Chicago blues and like Slim, Lil ‘Ed Williams benefits from having stability in his group. In fact, the present line-up of cousin James ‘Pookie’ Young on bass; Michael Garrett on second guitar and Kelly Littleton on drums has been together for nearly 25 years, since right before Ed’s second album, Chicken Gravy & Biscuits. This helps explain the tightness of the performances heard here.

Fans of Lil ‘Ed & the Blues Imperials will find little new on this collection of hard driving slide blues and Chicago shuffles. With the exception of a J.B. Hutto cover, Ed wrote or co-wrote the songs here. There is a mix of a slow, straight blues such as You Burnt Me, where after being left out on the street Ed asks why would he want her back, and the amusing slide-burner Born Loser, on which Ed sings about living on the edge and walk on the wild side but opportunity knocked and his door was locked, and murphy’s law is his motto. On the driving House of Cards, Ed tells his woman that she was living in a dream and the game has turned around and her house of cards is tumbling down after dealing Ed a bad hand with her dating another man.

Jump Right In, is an amusing song about this woman telling him to jump right in to the pool and she’ll teach him to swim and when he is ready for his swimming test she’ll take him to her deep end. Michael Garrett takes the solo on this. Marty Sammon’s organ adds atmospheric to Life Is A Journey, which he wants to share with his woman. Musical Mechanical Electrical Man musically channels uncle J.B. Hutto’s Please Help, as he tells his woman he will fix her up as he has a plan. Ed’s evokes his uncle further on his fervently performed cover of Hutto’s “If You Change Your Mind” with Sammon adding piano behind Ed’s passionate sining and driving slide guitar. It may be the stand-out performance on an album that is consistently entertaining and full of heartfelt blues.

Like the entire body of recordings by Lil ‘Ed and the Blues Imperials, Jump Start will get the party rocking with its good-time houserockin’ blues.

I received a review copy from Alligator Records. Here is Lil 'Ed & the Blues Imperials at the 1993 Pocono Blues Festival. I was at this show. Nearly two decades later they are still going strong.

Studebaker John Is a Self-Made Man

Studebaker John Grimaldi and the Hawks have been laying down some house-rocking blues for nearly 3 decades. His band name referenced the Studebaker Hawk as well as served as a tribute to the late J.B. Hutto whose backing band was known as the Hawks. Playing both slide guitar harp, he has been adept in a traditionally oriented approach to the blues (reflecting especially the driving approaches of Hutto and Hound Dog Taylor) but not afraid to mix in a bit of rock and roll and bring his own voice. He has toured and recorded behind a number of blues legends as well as developed his own music. He had several fine recordings on Blind Pig in the 1990s and has just released his new disc, Self-Made Man on the Avanti label.

He is backed by his trio that includes bassist Bob Halaj and drummer Willie Hayes for a collection of straight ahead rocking blues. Perhaps no finer example of Studebaker John’s hard rocking approach is the hot boogie, Back in Your Town, with its stop time boogie break suggestive of Magic Sam. The title track has the rhythm laying down a churning groove with some fine guitar from John. John picks up the harp and displays a nice fat tone on Fast in the Slow Lane, singing about wanting to get home to his woman as the three get a real nice shuffle groove going.

Hayes kicks off a boogaloo groove as John plays some very atmospheric tremolo for The Hard Way, singing about being knocked down and getting back up and taking no easy shortcuts. There is some nice playing on this as John effectively mixes in slide with his single note runs. All Aboard (The Streamliner) is a hot harmonica instrumental where we get taken for quite a ride while Hoo Doo You is a funk blues about having more than a little spell placed on him while Where Are You? is another harmonica blues with a swampy feel. Hey Little Mama is a slide guitar boogie where John evokes Hound Dog Taylor.

By the time the set closes with another harp rocker, Ride With me Baby, one has been taken through an 80 minute roller coaster of blues with more than a few rock and roll accents. Studebaker John has left us another helping of original music that is deeply rooted in the traditional Chicago blues but full of his own personal stamp on the music.

This review appeared originally in the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 288). I likely received my review copy from either that publication or a publicist for the review. Studebaker John has a new Delmark release, Old School Rockin’ that I will be reviewing shortly. I reviewed his previous Delmark album, That's The Way You Do in 2010.

Homesick James Could Still Shake His Moneymaker In His Eighties

Cousin of the late Elmore James, the late Homesick James Williamson was perhaps described among the second-tier of slide guitarists performing in the manner of his more famous broomdusting cousin. SRV Blue has just issued Shake Your Money Maker, some 1999 live recordings in Switzerland produced by Fred James who is on guitar on these tracks.

James was one of the artists who recorded for small Chicago labels like Chance for whom he waxed Lonesome Old Train and his signature song, Homesick Blues. Later he recorded an album for Prestige which I find hardly memorable although Fred James, in the liner booklet, calls it Homesick’s ‘high water mark.’ He also was recorded by Sam Charters for the classic anthology, Chicago The Blues Today, which this writer feels is his most impressive work. In the ensuing years until his December 2006, he recorded a number of albums for a variety of labels including Trix, Ice House, Appaloosa. European recordings he made with the late harp player Snooky Pryor are the ones most worth seeking.

With respect to Shake Your Money Maker, it shows that in his 80’s Homesick James had lost little in terms of his playing and husky vocals. As Fred James observes, Homesick had an erratic sense of timing, but also his slide playing seems a bit off the beat compared to his contemporaries. Certainly his slide attack lacks the forcefulness of his contemporaries such as Hound Dog Taylor and J.B. Hutto. There is little surprising of the performances here in terms of material. Gotta Move and Set a Date had mainstays of Homesick James repertoire as was Elmore’s The Sky is Crying. There are some interesting songs included like, Crosscut Saw, that sort of meanders along as opposed to being played with the crisp rhythms of Albert King’s recording, and a rendition of Arthur Crudup’s That’s Alright Mama.

These are mostly lengthy performances that would have benefited from being a tad bit more focused and briefer, but generally are engaging.

I received my review copy from Jazz & Blues Report and this review originally appeared in that publication’s January 2008 issue (issue 300), and I have made some stylistic changes.

Iceman Robinson's Slide Guitar Blues

Riler 'Iceman' Robinson, like many playing the blues in Chicago, came from Mississippi. He learned to play blues guitar from a man who was in his 50s and also played the fiddle and the two worked house parties together, with Robinson accompanying the fiddler on guitar. Later he moved to Chicago working a variety of blue collar jobs. An early musical idol was Lightnin' Hopkins, but Robinson later was enamored by John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor with the latter two especially influencing his music. 

To my knowledge, Iceman Robinson has one recording available, the 2001 Fedora album I've Never Been Loved. He is backed on it by Frank Goldwasser on guitar; Willie Kent on bass; and producer Chris Millar on drums.  His influences are pretty evident on this traditionally based Chicago blues album. The opening My Baby's Comin' Home, is a reworking of Elmore's Talk To Me Baby, with an urgent vocal and driving slide. It is followed by insistent rendition Hound Dog Taylor's Sadie, where half way through Robinson starts referring to a "Sally" for the remainder of the performance. Other strong tracks include a fine slide instrumental Robinson's Rock styled after some of the instrumentals Elmore James recorded for record producer, Bobby Robinson, and Chicago Lakefront which is a hot shuffle with some tough non-slide guitar.

There is nothing profound about his songs. Just like he needs money, he needs a woman he sings against the insistent backing of I Have a Need. The title track is a relaxed shuffle where he complains that he has never being treated right and has the blues all day and all night. He complains about having no time to play and his woman not being helping any on Workin' Man, a driving blues using the Dust My Broom riff. The insistent Baby How Long adapts Howlin' Wolf's How Many More Years. A driving slide guitar boogie in the vein of Hound Dog Taylor, "Waiting on My Baby," ends this entertaining album.

Iceman Robinson’s I've Never Been Loved is one of many solid traditionally oriented Chicago blues that many may have been overlooked by fans of this style. It delivers some solid Chicago blues with solid slide guitar that should appeal to fans of Chicago styled blues who may have missed this. Fedora is to be thanked for making the music of unheralded acts like Ice Man Robinson available for posterity.

I believe I purchased this and it is still available.

Elmore James Jr's Daddy Provided A Strong Blues Legacy

Children of famous performers sometimes follow in the parents footsteps and others take a fresh turn. In the blues, sons of Muddy waters have performed blues definitely inspired by their legendary father as has singer-guitarist Eddie Taylor, Jr. In contrast, Lurrie Bell took up guitar and daughter Shemekia did not have to worry about be Johnny Copeland Jr. Another son of a blues legend, Elmore James Jr. (real name is Earnest Johnson) put out a recording several years ago, Daddy Gave Me The Blues (JSP) that doesn't simply clone his father's music. On this, his band includes saxophonists Jeff Turmes and Ron Dzuibla, bassist Oakland Red, guitarists Rick Reed and Cadillac Zack and Stephen Mugalian on drums.

The music on Daddy Gave Me The Blues is far more than simply hard slide guitar blues and shuffles. The opening Don't Get Mad is a solid contemporary Chicago blues that suggests John Primer and the late Willie Kent. As a singer, Elmore Jr. sounds more like Homesick James than his father, as can be heard on Going Back Home, a nice slide guitar blues in his father's style. "Tore Down is a fresh reworking of the Freddie King recording built upon a funky groove and bass riff. The reworking of Jimmy Reed's You Don't Have To Go (titled here Oh Baby) finds him back with the slide and an arrangement and sound reminiscent of Homesick James' Baby Please Set a Date. In addition to some strong slide guitar, their is a strutting tenor sax solo.

The title track is a scuffling sounding shuffle with an autobiographical lyric as he talks about about how daddy gave his family a Cadillac in a 1951 and helped him become a musician. Cummins Prison Farm is another song with some slide (again in the Homesick James vein) as Elmore Jr gives a forceful delivery of Calvin Leavy's blues classic about the notorious prison farm with a solid solo likely from Reed or Cadillac Zack in addition to the leader's slide which serves primarily as instrumental foil to his vocals. A highpoint is Electric Man where he sings when I plug into your socket, I can charge you like no man." The song is a strong reworking of Memphis Slim's Grinder Man Blues, with a nice old school solo from him as well. Steppin' With Elmore is a slide guitar instrumental in the fashion of Elmore's Bobby's Rock.

The album closes with an acoustic rendition of Going Back Home, with a nice accompaniment and solid vocal. In fact his vocals have a definite appeal to me. He sings in a straight-forward manner and the performances have a natural soulfulness. While his performances may not have all of the intensity of his father, Daddy Gave Me The Blues is a nicely performed recording worth the consideration of Chicago blues lovers.

I purchased this CD. I should note that I have misplaced my hard copy of this recording so hopefully I did not screw up the personnel listing.

Bukka White's Classic Rediscovery Blues

Back three decades ago, Samuel Charters produced a series of blues lps for the Swedish Sonet label, The Legacy of the Blues, along with some other blues recordings. Charters is known as both a blues author (The Country Blues, The Poetry of the Blues, Bluesmen) as well as a producer of blues recordings, including the classic Chicago, The Blues Today! and albums by Junior Wells and Buddy Guy to name a few of the artists he recorded. Universal Music, through its Verve imprint has just issued seven of the seven Sonet lps for reissue in a series, The Sonet Blues Story. Six of these are from The Legacy of the Blues series. This is the third in a series of posts of my reviews from this series that originally appeared in the June 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 283).

Some of the albums in The Legacy of the Blues were from other producers. In fact, the volume by Bukka White reissues the Takoma LP that captured the 1963 Memphis session that Ed Denson and John Fahey taped after White had been located. White was one of the great Delta singers who first recorded in the 1930s. He had seen Charlie Patton and was influenced by this pioneering artist. White played a driving slide style that complimented his rough, shouted vocals. One of the blues most imaginative lyricists, he could weave a lyric story out of the sky as he would do for Arhoolie.


The recordings, many remakes of tunes he waxed for Columbia, are strong, focused performances whether the reworking of Aberdeen, Mississippi Blues, the train blues, New Orleans Streamline and The Atlanta Special, where his playing echoed the train traveling through the countryside, the gospel message of I Am the Heavenly Way or the country boogie Shake ‘Em on Down, these performances remain as vital as when he recorded them over forty years ago. If you have the Takoma album, you do not need this. Otherwise this is one of the best Delta blues recordings of the past half-century.

It should be noted that on these Sonet reissues, the playing time is somewhat short. Even those with extra tracks do not exceed 45 minutes. Still there is some good to exceptional music to be heard on these. This CD may be out-of-print but is available from various sellers and is available as mp3 files. I received my review copy from the publication.

Tedeschi Trucks Band's Revelator Has Strong Appeal

Each having successful solo careers, spouses Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks have put that part of their career behind for a period to co-lead a band. Both have developed into established and focused performers, who often joined each other on stage when possible. This new combination is not surprising. The Tedeschi Trucks Band have recently issued The Tedeschi Trucks Band have recently issued Revelator, on Sony Masterworks.


In addition to the leaders, Kofi Burbridge from Derek's band is on keyboards while his brother Oteil, from the Allman Brothers, handles the bass. Mike Mattison, Derek's vocalist is aboard for harmony vocals (and he contributes to some of the songs, which are all originals). Tyler Greenwell and J.J. Johnson are on drums, while Mark Rivers, David Ryan Harris and Ryan Shaw are on harmony vocals. There is also a horn section that includes Kebbi Williams on saxophone, Maurice Brown on trumpet, and Saunders Semmons on trombones. The horns add some punch and atmosphere, but with one exception little else.


Few will be surprised with the music here. There is plenty of Trucks' piercing, vocalized slide guitar and Tedeschi certainly has matured to a superb singer.Certainly she is equal to others in the blues-r&b-roots-pop vein able to move from a honey-toned straight-ahead to a church-rooted shout, always sounding natural. Its easy to simply sit back and listen to the solid, tight performances here and certainly one should expect that the live performances equal, if not surpass, the level of the music here.


This is not to say that everything is perfect. Their is some sameness to some of the material and some of the material on closer examination is not as strong as the band's execution. Bound For Glory, seems like a stringing together of hooks, and the entire lyric does not cohere, although Simple Things, is a gem, with Tedeschi's vocal acknowledging that she has not been giving enough in the relationship and maybe that's why one has the walls around himself.

The groove of Until You Remember evokes classic Memphis soul, and has another of the better lyrics here as Tedeschi sings it ain't right to be holding on too tight "until you remember you are mine." There is a nice suggestion of the Memphis Horns or Bar-Kays at the opening, while Derek's guitar builds upon the intensity generated by Susan's vocal. An intriguing performance is These Walls, with its addition of sarode and tabla to the musical mix to a tune that has a melody similar to Angel From Montgomery, with a lyric about a woman whose man has left town and whose times have been hard praying that the walls don't fall down and "thinking 'bout you baby for such a long, long time." The interplay between the sarode and Truck's very restrained slide work here is very nice.


In addition to the uneven songwriting, this writer also wishes that the horns might have been given more than simply the supporting role they exhibited. Maurice Brown, for example, is an especially gifted soloist with considerable warmth and originality and certainly would have further spiced up the performances. The horns on Love Has Something Else To Say, provide a hint of this point with a dialogue between guitar and tenor sax.


Of course, these are minor criticisms at most and "Revelator" certainly will be on many lists of the best recordings of 2011. Incidentally, after the conclusion of Shelter, there is an hidden performance of an instrumental, Ghost Light.


My review copy was provided by a publicist.

Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials Go Full Tilt

One of the most popular blues bands anywhere is Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials who will be appearing at two of this summer’s top blues festivals this summer, the Pennsylvania Blues Festival and the North Atlantic Blues Festival (my previews of the festivals are linked). The review of the band’s Full Tilt appeared in the September 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 308). This is the last Alligator album they have released.


Blues fans should have no trouble enjoying the latest Alligator disk, Full Tilt, by Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials. The album, their eighth for Alligator is another hard-driving, rocking set of slide-guitar blues in the vein of Ed’s uncle J.B. Hutto and Hound Dog Taylor. Ed and The Blues Imperials—guitarist Mike Garrett, bassist James “Pookie” Young, drummer Kelly Littleton—are celebrating 20 amazing years together.

Full Tilt certainly describes how the band plays, starting from the driving Hold That Train that kicks this off. They hold nothing back on this collection of 11 originals from Ed, another by his bassist James Young, and interpretations of songs by Hound Dog Taylor and Smokey Robinson. Housekeeping Job is a nice funky tune with some saxophones added to the recording, while some rollicking piano can be heard on the hard rocking Don’t Call Me. Check My Baby’s Oil, is a slow blues reminiscent of some of J.B. Hutto’s tune with imaginative automotive-based double entendres, while Love Don’t Live Here Anymore, is a jaunty blues with a melody that evokes High Heel Sneakers.

Another striking original is Dying to Live, with some nice organ from Johnny Iguana behind Ed and his forceful vocals. Open Invitation is another easy rocking slide guitar blues, while the closing rendition of Hound Dog’s interpretation of Take Five, is a blistering close to another disc that can be easily be recommended to both Lil’ Ed’s many fans and anyone who likes solid slide guitar blues.

I received my review copy from Alligator Records.

Delta Moon Takes The Hellbound Train

Delta Moon, a blues-rooted Atlanta based band features the twin slide guitars of Tom Gray (also a notable songwriter who wrote for Cyndi Lauper (Money Changes Everything), Carlene Carter and others) and Mark Johnson. While both started playing in rock bands, before both started playing slide guitar and started playing together adding bass and drums they started playing nightclubs. Bassist Franher Joseph and drummer Darren Stanley joined Delta Moon in 2007. Red Parlor Records (Blues Boulevard in Europe) has just issued Delta Moon’s sixth CD Hellbound Train. Gray played a part in writing all ten originals (there is one cover) with Johnson contributed to seven of them, and Joseph and Stanley also are credited on a couple of selections. Francine Reed adds backing vocals to several selections.

Not familiar with their prior records, one is struck by a certain Dylanesque quality to some of the performances in terms of the song imagery and the strong blue feel of the performances. Gray’s lap steel and Johnson’s slide provide this feel with some keen, whining playing with the rhythm section providing simple emphatic (perhaps a trifle too emphatic) backing. Listened by themselves, the lyrics are intriguing although many of the performances share similar tempos (an exception being the high-stepping Ain’t No Train. The one cover is “You’ve Got to Move,” and Fred McDowell’s influence on the two guitarists would be evident even without there performance of this tune. Also, the simple driving rhythms and melodies also display this influence as well as the blues of the North Mississippi Hill Country. Take the Back Road, stands out in contrast with a country-rock feel, while the closing Plantation Song, is a folk lament.

Not strictly a blues recording with some folk and country touches, but certainly the blues roots of much of Hellbound Train, is clearly evident. Several of the songs are clever and interesting although several of the performances did sound similar, so this may be best enjoyed sampled a few songs at time, but clearly worth checking out. This can be obtained from http://deltamoon.com. A number of their earlier releases are available on cdbaby, and this may be when officially released in April.

A publicist for this release sent me a review copy. This review originally appeared in the May 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 325)

Rory Block Shakes 'Em On Down

Rory Block was fortunate to learn her music from (in addition to recordings) some of the masters of the blues idiom from such then surviving masters as Reverend Gary Davis, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Mississippi Fred McDowell. After her album devoted to Robert johnson’s music, she has continued with a disc of the music of Son House and now Mississippi Fred McDowell as part of a series of recordings where she salutes those who mentored her. Her Robert Johnson tribute was modeled closely on Johnson’s originals whereas her Son House tribute she mixed some performances with others that took more liberties. On her newest CD, Shake ‘Em on Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell (Stony Plain) she has written originals as well as given her own interpretation to McDowell’s songs.

The fact that her interpretations of songs associated with McDowell are personal interpretations along with her originals that incorporate elements of McDowell’s percussive, slide style without being a pastiche of such style, makes this a very different and, in my opinion, the most successful of her tribute recordings. It should be noted that it certainly sounds as if there is overdubbing of guitar parts and vocals, but it is wonderfully recorded so kudos to Rob Davis for the excellent engineering job.

This tribute opens with two of Ms Block’s originals. Steady Freddy, which has a forceful accompaniment as she has penned lyrics re-creating McDowell’s autobiography although the dialect is that of Ms Block and not Fred McDowell. It is followed by the remarkable Mississippi Man, a fully realized performance in part this song is Rory’s own story as a fifteen year old and her meeting the Mississippi Man. These lead in to her interpretations of McDowell’s songs that evoke the master while having her place her own stamp on them. She captures the mesmerizing flavor on Kokomo Blues, and that Eleven Light City. Good Morning Little School Girl is a bit more reflective and less rhythmically insistent than McDowell’s renditions, as she recasts the lyrics from the standpoint of the school girl who wants to go back home with the school boy. What’s the Matter Now, impressively builds on McDowell’s driving guitar style while vocally she lengthens the lyrics for her impassioned vocals.

Shake ‘Em Down illustrates her natural distillation of McDowell’s driving, droning guitar style while she overdubs vocals which she convincingly delivers, employs a pronounced rhythmic emphasis, while Worried Mind is a nice rendition of McDowell’s performance that might have come from John Estes’ Someday Baby, or perhaps Big Maceo’s Worried Life Blues. Whatever, Block makes this her own just like Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell, Big Maceo and others had done. The Man That I’m Lovin’, is likewise another song associated with Sleepy John Estes that McDowell translated into his style which again proves potent inspiration for Ms. Block who reinvents it yet anew.

Ancestral Home is another Rory original that incorporates elements of African musical traditions with her lyrics about the slave trade mixed with her overdubbing some African dialect in the vocal. Another original, the powerful The Breadline was originally an instrumental medley built from McDowell riffs to which she added lyrics about losing one’s home and can’t pay her lawyer and the rich folks on vacation “they don’t give a damn” with the line “hard times are here again” so contemporary and relevant. The album concludes with Woke Up This Morning, one of McDowell’s moving gospel songs with Rory’s moving multi-tracked vocals, followed by her strong re-imaging of another of McDowell’s signature songs, Write Me a Few of Your Lines.

Rory Block deserves kudos for this marvelous tribute with its ambitious and imaginative look at McDowell’s work that is inspired by the spirit of McDowell’s music, but has her imprint on all the performances. Of the eight songs associated with Fred McDowell, she has included a few of his signature songs, but also included lesser known parts of his repertoire and that added to her own originals making for a superb recording.


I received my review copy from Stony Plain Records.

Freddie Roulette is the forgotten blues steel guitar legend

Long before Chris Strachwitz issued his first collection of Sacred Steel recordings on Arhoolie, guitarist Freddie Roulette had recorded on lap steel on a variety of recordings including Earl Hooker’s classic Arhoolie album, Two Bugs and a Roach, Big Moose Walker’s great 45, Ramblin’ Woman b/w Puppy Howl Blues, and the Chicago Blues Stars. What stood out was the vocalized quality of his playing and how his playing evoked trains, howling dogs and other sounds in a fashion that the sacred steel players and few other guitarists do today (Derek Trucks being a notable one).

Roulette has lived in the San Francisco area over three and a half decades. Back in 1997, he had a terrific album on Hi Horse, Back in Chicago, where he was backed by the late Willie Kent and his excellent band. Now guitarist Henry Kaiser has produced a new release by Roulette, Man of Steel, on the German Tradition & Moderne label. Certainly it provides enough space for Roulette to display his considerable talents, but the presence of several other guitarists, some of whom also play slide provide for what may be overall a less satisfying recording. It opens with Roulette reviving the Johnny Taylor/Albert King classic Breaking Up Somebody’s Home, with some startling playing but a lesser vocal, followed by Washington Phillips’ Tattler on which David Lindley takes the vocal lead and adds slide. Once one gets past the limited vocal by Roulette on the simple lyrics of You Got To Funkifize, one hears nice playing from Roulette but there is perhaps too much from Kaiser for these ears. With Ken Emerson providing a foundation on his lap steel, Roulette imaginatively takes lead on a refreshing reworking of Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder, before either Kaiser or Phil Emerson takes a nice solo. Roulette’s vocal comes off better on Willie Nelson’s Nightlife with his lap steel embellishments behind his vocal being a nice touch. A Hawaiian instrumental How Do Ya Do? provides nice lap steel playing from Roulette and Ken Emerson, and is followed down by a slowed down, stop-time rendition of Arthur Crudup’s That’s Allright Mama, with a nice vocal by Ken Emerson and more nice mood-enhancing playing from Roulette. Surfin’ is a nice instrumental set to a reggae groove, followed by a decent vocal on In the Heat of the Night. It is a wide-ranging set with some typically fine work by Roulette covering a variety of musical styles with some fine ensemble playing. Still this does not quite place Roulette’s electrifying guitar to the fore as the Hi Horse disc did.