*The "Jelly Roll Baker" Is In The House- The Blues Of Lonnie Johnson

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Lonnie Johnson Doing "Got The Blues For Murder Only".

CD REVIEW

Steppin’ The Blues, Lonnie Johnson, Columbia Records, 1990.

Parts of the following have been used in a review of Lonnie Johnson Blues and Ballads CD (hereafter B&B).

Okay, Okay those of you who have been keeping tabs know that I have spend much of the last year, when not doing political commentary or book or movie reviews, reviewing many of the old time blues artists that were the passion of my youth (and still are). So this writer, who thought he had heard virtually all the key blues men and women of the old days, got his comeuppance a while back when the name of Lonnie Johnson and his version of the classic double-entendre song “Jelly Roll Baker” came up. To name drop just a little, the occasion was a local reunion of Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin of the old Jim Kweskin Jug Band from the 1960’s (that also included Geoff’s ex-wife and great performer in her own right, Maria Muldaur). They did a stirring rendition of the song and attributed it to the performer under review here. After scratching my head I ran out to get some more of Brother Lonnie’s work and as noted above I have fulsomely praised his B&B CD in this space.

Although this CD has merit musically and certainly has historical worth as a comparison of young Lonnie Johnson in the 1920’s to the later B&B Lonnie this is one time when aging seems to have created a better body of work. A comparison of “I’m Nuts About That Gal” (really an early version of his classic “Jelly Roll Baker”) and the “Jelly Roll Baker” of the B&B make my point succinctly. That said, the noted Johnson guitar work is highlighted on “Guitar Blues”, the novelty sassy song in two parts “Toothache Blues” and “Deep Blue Sea Blues”. That is why you want this album.

***Yes, You Better Boot That Thing- Early Women Blues Singers From The 1920s Be-Bop Night

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Victoria Spivey performing "TB Blues". Wow.

CD REVIEW

Better Boot That Thing: Great Women Blues Singers Of The 1920’s, BMG Music, 1992

One of the interesting facts about the development of the blues is that in the early days the recorded music and the bulk of the live performances were done by women, at least they were the most popular exponents of the genre. That time, the early 1920's to the 1930's, was the classic age of women blues performers. Of course, when one thinks about that period the name that comes up is the legendary Bessie Smith. Beyond that, maybe some know Ethel Waters. And beyond that-a blank.

I have tried elsewhere in this space to redress that grievance by reviewing the works of the likes of Memphis Minnie, Ida Cox and Ivy Anderson, among others. I also have scheduled a separate appreciation of one of the four women featured on this CD, Alberta Hunter. This CD format thus falls rather nicely in line with my overall intention to continue to highlight some of these lesser known women artists. Moreover, as fate would have it, this compilation included the work of Victoria Spivey, a singer that I have mentioned elsewhere and have wanted to discuss further. Finally, the conception of the producers here is enhanced by breaking up the CD into two parts-the urban blues part represented by Hunter and Spivey and the country blues part represented by Bessie Tucker and Ida May Mack. While both this trends have always shared some common roots and musicality they also represent two distinct trends in blues music as reflected in the increasing urbanization of the American black population in the 20th century.

Let’s use the urban/country divide as a frame of reference. The smoother style of Hunter and Spivey obviously reflected the need to entertain a more sophisticated audience that was looking for music that was different from that country stuff down home. And that laid back style was seemingly passé in the hectic urban world. Tucker and Mack reflect that old time country hard work on the farm, hard scrabble for daily existence found, as well, in the songs of their country blues male counterparts. What unites the two strands is the personal nature of the subject matter- you know, mistreating’ men, cheatin’ guys, two-timing fellas, money taking cads, squeakin’ man-stealing women friends, the dusty road out of town, and just below the surface violence and mayhem, threaten or completed. And that is just an average day’s misery.

So what is good here? I won’t spend much time on Alberta because I have looked at her work elsewhere but please give a listen to “My Daddy’s Got A Brand New Way To Love,” the title tells everything you need to know about this song and is classic Alberta. Of course for Bessie Tucker you need, and I mean need, to hear the title track “Better Boot That Thing” and then you will agree that you, man or woman, best stay home and take care of business. As for Ida May I flipped when I heard her saga of a fallen woman as she moans out on “Elm Street Blues” and her lament on “Wrong Doin’ Daddy”. However, what you really want to do is skip to the final track and listen to “Good-bye Rider” which for the nth time concerns the subject of that previously mentioned advice about “not advertising your man.” to your friends.

Victoria is just too much on “Telephoning The Blues,” again on that two timing man, wronged woman theme. “Blood Hound Blues” demonstrates that she was not afraid to tackle some thorny issues, including a reverse twist here about a woman driven to kill her hard-hearted physically abusive man, was jailed, escaped and is on the lam as she sings this song. The song that knocked me out on this more socially-oriented theme is her “Dirty Tee Bee Blues” about the tragic suffering of a gal who went the wrong way looking for love and adventure and now must pay the price. Powerful stuff.

A special note on Victoria Spivey. I have mentioned, in a review of some film documentaries (four altogether) entitled “American Folk Blues Festival, 1962-1966” that were retrieved a few years ago by German Cinema and featured many of the great blues artist still alive at that time on tour in Europe, that Victoria Spivey had a special place in the blues scene not only as a performer and writer (of songs and goings-on in the music business) but that she was a record producer as well (Spivey Records).

Back in the days when music was on vinyl (you remember them, right?) I used to rummage through a second hand- record store in Cambridge (talk about ancient history). One of my treasured finds there was a Spivey Records platter featuring Victoria, the legendary Otis Spann (of Muddy Waters’ band), Luther “Guitar” Johnson, and a host of other blues luminaries. She, like her black male counterpart impresario Willie Dixon (who she occasionally performed with), was a pioneer in this business end of the blues business, a business that left more than its fair share of horror stories about the financial shenanigans done to “rob” blues performers of their just desserts. That, however, is a tale for another day.

*A Blues Potpourri-The Blues Is Dues, Part II-Every Day He May Have The Blues But You Won’t

Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Willie Dixon performing his"29 Ways."

CD REVIEW

February Is Black History Month

As those familiar with this space know I have spent a good amount of ink touting various old time blues legends that I ‘discovered’ in my youth. My intention, in part, is to introduce a new generation to this roots music but also to demonstrate a connection between this black-centered music and the struggle for black liberation that both blacks and whites can appreciate. Like virtually all forms of music that lasts more than five minutes the blues has had its ups and downs. After becoming electric and urbanized in the immediate post-World War II period it was eclipsed by the advent of rock&roll then made a comeback in the mid- 1960's with the surge of English bands that grew up on this music, and so on. Most recently there was mini-resurgence with the justifiably well-received Martin Scorsese PBS six-part blues series in 2003. A little earlier, in the mid-1990’s, there had also been a short-lived reemergence spearheaded by the ‘discovery’ of urban blues pioneer Robert Johnson’s music.

The long and short of this phenomenon is that commercial record production of this music waxed and waned reflecting that checkered history. I have, in the interest of variety for the novice, selected these CDs as a decent cross-section of blues (and its antecedents in earlier forms of roots music) as to gender, time and type. The following reviewed CDs represent first of all an attempt by record companies to meet the 1990’s surge. They also represent a hard fact of musical life. Like rock&roll the blues will never die. Praise be. Feast on these compilations.


Every Day He May Have The Blues But You Won’t

Living The Blues: Blues Greats, MCA Records, 1995

If you have read my review of “Living The Blues: Blues Masters” then this compilation is an extension of that CD as to the level of talent. Very good work ,as is to be expected, by Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, the under-appreciated Otis Rush on “Double Trouble” place this CD just fraction below the previously reviewed “Blues Masters”. Additional standout work includes impresario Willie Dixon (who deserves and will receive individual review later) on his own “29 Ways”. T-Bone Walker on his “T-Bone Shuffle" (was there a better electric blues guitar player?), Little Walter (and his incredible harmonica) on “Juke” and “Driving Wheel” by Little Junior Parker.

29 Ways
Willie Dixon

I got 29 ways to make it to my baby's door
I got 29 ways to make it to my baby's door
And if she needs me bad
I can find about two or three more

I got one through the basement
Two down the hall
And when the going gets tough
I got a hole in the wall

CHORUS

I can come through the chimney like Santa Claus
Go through the window and that ain't all
A lot of good ways I don't want you to know
I even got a hole in the bedroom floor

CHORUS

I got a way through the closet behind her clothes
A way through the attic that no one knows
A master key that fits every lock
A hidden door behind the grandfather clock

CHORUS
© 1956

The Fire Next Time- Keb' Mo'

CD REVIEW

February Is Black History Month

Keb’ Mo’, Keb’ Mo’, Okeh Records, 1994

This reviewer has spent much ink in this space over the past year or so touting various old time country blues singers like Bukka White, Skip James and, of course, Son House. I have noted that their music reflected the rural southern, mainly Mississippi Delta. plantation life of hard toil (picking that damn cotton), hard living and hard loving from an earlier part of the last century. That age effectively ended on an economic level with the vast increases in the mechanization of agriculture and the migration of blacks north (mainly to Chicago and other Midwest industrial stops) in the period leading up to World War II. Musically it ended with the electrification of the blues guitar as the music headed north. That, however, begs an important question. Who would, if anyone, continue that old blues tradition?

Well we know part of the answer. The various white (mainly) urban folk revivalists of the 1960’s, including the likes of Dave Van Ronk and Eric Von Schmidt and British rock aficionados like Eric Clapton of that same period held the tradition together by physically “discovering” the remnants of the old time singers like the above-mentioned artists. And by creating their own blues tradition. But what of now. That is where the artist under review, Keb’ Mo’, comes into the picture. He has gone back to the roots with some sassy, saucy, sexy songs (mainly of his own creation) that would do his predecessors proud. In the age of the ‘hip-hop nation’ the sheer number of those who are committed to the maintenance of this music is surely much too small but the quality, as represented by Keb’, makes up the difference.

So what is good here? “Anybody Seen My Girl” deserves a listen as does “Dirty Low Down and Bad” but if you have only time to listen to one give a listen to the old Robert Johnson tune “ Kindhearted Woman” then you will know why the old blues tradition is still in capable hands. Kudos Keb’.

Note: I first heard of Keb’ through part one of Martin Scorsese’s six part 2003 PBS series on the history of the blues. I recommend that series for those who want a primer on the history of this music-then push on from there.

*The Hoochie Coochie Man- The Blues of Muddy Waters -"He's Got His Mojo Workin'"

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Muddy Waters in Performance mode.

DVD Review

Muddy's Got His Mojo Working

Muddy Waters: Got My Mojo Working, German Cinema, 2003

Recently I watched this German cinema produced film concert documentary compilation as a companion piece to the documentary of Muddy’s life- “Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied”. If you need background about the life and work of this important blues artist and innovator check out my review of it in this space (above). And get the film. If you just need a flat out “short course” in the electric blues of Mr. Muddy Waters and his various bands then this is the ticket. Some of the concert material is so-so, some is excellent. What you want to get this one for though is his incredible extended version of “Mannish Boy”. Hoochie Coochie Man, indeed.

*The Hoochie Coochie Man- The Blues of Muddy Waters

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Muddy waters Performing "He's Got His Mojo Workin'".

DVD Review

Anytime Is Blues History Month

Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied, Muddy Waters, various band members and other artists, Productions,1997

Over the past year I have made some effort to trace back the roots of the blues by highlighting various seemingly forgotten blues artists, mainly from the country blues branch. I have also mentioned that the huge black migration of blacks in the 1930’ sand 1940’s from the South to the North, mainly up the river to Chicago, called for a different kind of energy and so the blues got plugged in to reflect that change. One would think that well before now I would have covered the great Muddy Waters, a seminal figure in that transformation of the blues. There are a few reasons what this has not been done previously. For one, I have tried to concentrate on the country blues artist, many who have been unjustly neglected. For another, I was aware that “Cadillac Records”, essentially the story of Muddy and his relationship to Chicago’s Chess Records, the key outlet for electric blues during its rise, was to be released at the end of 2008. But the main reason is that when it comes to the question of the “King of Chicago Blues” Howlin’ Wolf is my choice and I have felt no urgency to get to Muddy’s work, as important as it is to my project.

That said, this well made production highlighting the career and work of Muddy Waters is well worth the watch whatever your sympathies. As usual with these kinds of efforts there are many “talking heads” that inevitably populate this format. These include, importantly, various musicians that worked with Muddy over the years, like James Cotton and Charlie Musselwhite, and provide insight into his musician style, his personal habits including his womanizing and drinking, his on-and- off stage presences, a tour of various spots in Chicago where the music was made in the old days and a hint at his personality. There are also the appreciations by various later musicians influenced by Muddy, including Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton and the ubiquitous Keith Richards. Finally there are family members, girlfriends and others giving their, sometimes painful, recollections of the man.

Additionally, this film provides a running commentary through Muddy’s life, of the ups and downs of Chicago blues and the artists that performed that work. We get glances of Muddy’s start as a Delta artist in the late 1930’s, the transformation of his work as he hits Chicago in the war time 1940’s, his fight to be “King of the Hill”, his effect on other artists, the decline of the blues with the onslaught of rock & roll in the 1950’s, the revival in the 1960’s and his ultimate place in the blues pantheon. Along the way we get to hear snippets of his most famous work, including “Can’t Be Satisfied” and “Mannish Boy”. I, personally, do not think they compare to Howlin’ Wolf on “The Red Rooster” or “The Killing Floor” but this film gives those who have Muddy as number one in their electric blues pantheon plenty of ammunition for their position.

Doin' His Midnight Creep- The Howlin' Wolf Story

DVD REVIEW
Doin' His Midnight Creep- The Howlin' Wolf Story

The Howlin’ Wolf Story, Howlin’ Wolf and various artists and commentators, Productions, 2004

I have reviewed several of Howlin’ Wolf’s CDs in this space previously and had expected that this documentary about the life, the times and the influence of this incredible blues performer would merely be an appetizer for further reviews of his music. Not so. This well-done, lovingly put together and extremely informative documentary is a worthy viewing for the novice and old Wolf aficionados like me. Thus, rather than placing this commentary as a tail to some other Wolf entry it is worthy of separate entry here.

In this presentation filled, as always in this kind of work, with the inevitable “talking heads” we go from Wolf‘s roots down in the Mississippi Delta, cotton country and nothing else, in the 1920’s and 1930’s through to the first stop up the Mississippi at Memphis on to the Mecca Chicago in the post- World War II period and finally to international renown in the blues revival started by the likes of The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton the mid-1960s. In short we are treated to a view of the trajectory of Wolf’s life; unlike let us say Son House with whom Wolf worked with in the old days who stuck with the country roots, from country blues of the back road jukes to the electricity of the urban ghetto that made those old blues jump for, at first, migratory urban blacks and then young whites like this reviewer. Along the way many of the musicians that worked with Wolf like Hubert Sumerlin, a blues guitarist legend in his own right, and Sam Lay as well as Wolf’s daughters, the Chess Record producer Marshall Chess and others give some amusing stories and anecdotes on the life of the great bluesman. And seemingly as always when blues or rock and roll are mentioned little segments with the ubiquitous Sam Phillips of the well-known Sun Recording studio in Memphis.

I do not generally comment on (or for that matter look at) the special features sections of DVD. Not doing so here would be a mistake. There is some nice home movie footage, some interesting Wolf stories by his companions and rivals, a nice segment on the rivalry between Wolf and Muddy Waters to be “King of The Chicago Blues” and a recording of a radio broadcast of Wolf doing "Little Red Rooster". Damn, I flipped out the first time I heard that song when it was covered by The Rolling Stones in the early 1960’s. I also flipped out when I first heard a Wolf recording of it. I don’t know what I would have done had I heard it on my radio then. Probably started hitchhiking for Chicago.

All of this information is nice but I am sure the reader is just as interested to know about the music. Oh yes there is some great footage of classic Wolf efforts. Of course for this reviewer number one is always Wolf’s "Little Red Rooster". Christ, he is practically eating the harmonica by the end of the song. "Lovin’ Spoonful", "Moaning at Midnight" and a host of other songs get their usual professional Wolf treatment. That is a point to be underscored, he was a professional in his approach to the music, its presentation and the way that he could influence a genre that he practically build (along with his competitor Muddy Waters) from scratch. If you need an hour of the Wolf doin’ his Midnight Creep then you really have to see this documentary. Kudos to the filmmakers on this one.

*Since I Met You Baby- The Music Of Ivory Joe Hunter

Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of Ivory Joe Hunter performing his classic "Since I Met You Baby."

CD REVIEW

Since I Met You Baby: The Best of Ivory Joe Hunter, Razor and Tie Records, 1994

Here is a little quiz. Ask someone from the Generation of ’68 (forget anyone younger) if they know who the legendary rhythm and blues pianist Ivory Joe Hunter was. Probably, no response. Then ask whether they remember the song "Since I Met You Baby". They will start singing out the verses for you from a time of young love, class proms or school dances. Yes, that is Ivory Joe Hunter. While he never was at the top of my list of rhythm and blues artists who played piano he nevertheless was one of those instrumental artists who, kind of behind the scenes, influenced a whole generation of musicians to play and sing in that very sweet sing-song way. This, in fact, was the key to white kids like me in the 1950’s getting hip to black music. Nobody, at least who I knew, started with a dose of Ike Turner doing "Rocket 88" to beat the band. Or Elmore James stomping on that slide guitar doing "Dust My Broom". Or even Big Joe Turner jumping on "Shake, Rattle and Roll". We all learned about that ‘black’ thing from Ivory Joe then moved to the big boys (and girls).

As far as the work in this best of album goes, obviously "Since I Met You Baby" is tops. A few others using that same basic melody, like "Empty Arms", are here. Some early boogie woogie work like "Rockin’ Chair Boogie" jumps out at you. However overall, despite the importance of Ivory Joe to the roots of rhythm and blues and to our young love lives, there are, frankly, other artists I would run out and buy first now that I know what’s what with this kind of music.


IVORY JOE HUNTER lyrics - Since I Met You Baby

(Ivory Joe Hunter)

Since I met you baby
My whole life has changed
Since I met you baby
My whole life has changed
And everybody tells me
That I am not the same

I don't need nobody
To tell my troubles to
I don't need nobody
To tell my troubles to
'Cause since I met you baby
All I need is you

[Instrumental Interlude]

Since I met you baby
I'm a happy man
Since I met you baby
I'm a happy man
I'm gonna try to please you
In every way I can

*”Bluesland” -A Look At The Evolution Of The Blues- In One Place At One Time

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Muddy Waters performing "Hoochie Coochie Man" at the New Port Jazz Festival in 1960. Wow!


DVD Review

Bluesland: Masters Of American Music Series, various artists, BMG, 1991

Okay, apparently I will review any item that comes my way that has even the remotest connection with the blues, the history of the blues, or the individual performances of blues artists, great and small. I confess to being an aficionado and have been since my jaded youth. However, I know damn well that not everyone either shares that addiction or has heard enough to make a judgment. Thus, while I now tend to shy away from anthologies and general histories on this subject and have been honing in on individual genres and styles within the broad terms of what the blues are, when one of those crosses my desk that seems reasonably well-done and gives good sense of where the blues came from and….where it is going I will take the time to write a few word about it, especially as here there when there is a great deal of rare film footage involved in the production.

“Bluesland” easily fits those criteria just mentioned, and if there is just a little too much push of the blues as a central American gene in relationship to other musical forms by the presenter and “talking heads” that always feature in such documentaries, it hits all the known high spots of the blues experience and has some very, very good documentary footage accompanying the presentation. Like? Well, like old Son House flailing away on that National guitar of his. Or Muddy Waters tearing the place up in 1960 at the staid old Newport Jazz Festival with his “Hoochie Goochie Man” that had them dancing in the aisles. Or Duke Ellington leading the band in different variations of his classic “Ko-Ko” (including clips shot at the famed Harlem Cotton Club.). Yes, now you get the idea. Some of this footage is incredible.

But enough of the homage to the film footage. The central theme is the evolution of the genre from back in post-Civil War plantation days through Jim Crow sharecropping days that formed the music. Then it moves to the cities in the early part of the 20th century, in the South at first, then upriver to places like Memphis, Chicago and Kansas City. With the urbanization came the key changeover to electric sound in the post World War II period. The story from there is one of a mix and match and partial ellipse with the rise of rock and rock and then back up front again when some British kids, who had been spoon-fed in the late 1950s on it while we were listening to Bobby Vee or whoever, starting linking up wit the likes of Muddy Waters. And then…well we will wait and see. But, if you have any interest at all in the blues or our common musical heritage here in America then you shouldn’t wait.


"Charley Patton High Water Everywhere (part 1) lyrics"


Well, backwater done rose all around Sumner now,
drove me down the line
Backwater done rose at Sumner,
drove poor Charley down the line
Lord, I'll tell the world the water,
done crept through this town
Lord, the whole round country,
Lord, river has overflowed
Lord, the whole round country,
man, is overflowed
You know I can't stay here,
I'll go where it's high, boy
I would goto the hilly country,
but, they got me barred
Now, look-a here now at Leland
river was risin' high
Look-a here boys around Leland tell me,
river was raisin' high
Boy, it's risin' over there, yeah
I'm gonna move to Greenville
fore I leave, goodbye
Look-a here the water now, Lordy,
Levee broke, rose most everywhere
The water at Greenville and Leland,
Lord, it done rose everywhere
Boy, you can't never stay here
I would go down to Rosedale
but, they tell me there's water there
Now, the water now, mama,
done took Charley's town
Well, they tell me the water,
done took Charley's town
Boy, I'm goin' to Vicksburg
Well, I'm goin' to Vicksburg,
for that high of mine
I am goin' up that water,
where lands don't never flow
Well, I'm goin' over the hill where,
water, oh don't ever flow
Boy, hit Sharkey County and everything was down in Stovall
But, that whole county was leavin',
over that Tallahatchie shore Boy,
went to Tallahatchie and got it over there
Lord, the water done rushed all over,
down old Jackson road
Lord, the water done raised,
over the Jackson road
Boy, it starched my clothes
I'm goin' back to the hilly country,
won't be worried no more

"High Water Everywhere (part 2)"



Backwater at Blytheville, backed up all around
Backwater at Blytheville, done took Joiner town
It was fifty families and children come to sink and drown
The water was risin' up at my friend's door
The water was risin' up at my friend's door
The man said to his women folk, "Lord, we'd better go"
The water was risin', got up in my bed
Lord, the water was rollin', got up to my bed
I thought I would take a trip, Lord,
out on the big ice sled
Oh, I can hear, Lord, Lord, water upon my door,
you know what I mean, look-a here
I hear the ice, Lord, Lord, was sinkin' down,
I couldn't get no boats there, Marion City gone down
So high the water was risin' our men sinkin' down
Man, the water was risin' at places all around,
boy, they's all around
It was fifty men and children come to sink and drown
Oh, Lordy, women and grown men drown
Oh, women and children sinkin' down Lord, have mercy
I couldn't see nobody's home and wasn't no one to be found