Love Joe Turner, @rok2id! I was fortunate to see/hear him live in the mid-80's, back by The Blasters. I consider Joe the first Rock 'n' Roll singer, one of the Jump Blues practioners the Southern white Hillbillies like Elvis and Jerry Lee were listening to before they started recording. |
Hidden Charms by Willie Dixon (Capitol Records 90595). Produced by T Bone Burnett, songs arranged by Willie, the great Earl Palmer on drums and Red Callender on upright bass . Recorded at Ocean Way Studios (Ry Cooder’s favorite studio), mastered for vinyl by Bernie Grundman. |
@dabel: Neither album should be too hard to acquire, though neither has to my knowledge been reissued.
The Emitt Rhodes debut came out around the same time as did McCartney's, and the reviews (include those of my friends and myself) favoured Emitt's. I met and worked with him years later (1997), and sitting in his studio were the same organ and Gibson ES335 as are pictured on the album cover!
Fogerty's is his tribute, it seem to me, to his formative influences. Very 1950's, very Southern. Though comprised exclusively of covers, it's my favorite of all his solo albums. |
One of most-prized musical experiences was seeing and hearing Big Joe Turner backed by The Blasters in the mid-80's, at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. In the band at that time was Lee Allen, the sax player on many of Little Richard's Specialty recordings. An incredible night of music!
Sitting around a little table right above the dance floor were members of Joe's family. The men were in suits, the women very "dolled up", wearing those little hats with attached "veils", little mink stoles wrapped around their shoulders. It looked like a scene from an old movie! |
Has anyone mentioned The Best Of Little Walter Volumes 1 & 2 on Chess Records? |
One long-time favorite is the debut album by Lou Ann Barton entitled Old Enough, released in 1982 on Asylum Records. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield, Alabama, produced by Jerry Wexler (Aretha, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Dylan, etc.) and Glenn Frey (?!). Musical accompaniment by The Swampers (whose members include the superlative drummer/bassist duo of Roger Hawkins and David Hood), The Muscle Shoals Horns, and Jimmie Vaughan (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)---with whom Lou Ann often tours.
Sitting right next to Old Enough on the LP shelf is Jump Children by Dave Bartholomew (I named my son after him, Dave’s surname). The recordings were made in New Orleans (no duh ;-) between 1950 and ’60, and released on Imperial Records. My copy is a 1983 pressing on Pathe Marconi.
Then there is Mose Allison Sings on Prestige Records. Blues and Jazz co-existed in Mose, but he was a favorite of a fair number of hipper Rockers. Look at some of the titles on this album: "The Seventh Son", "Eyesight To The Blind", "Don’t Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me", "Parchman Farm", "Don’t Get Around Much Anymore". Recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder. |
Great one rok2td! Ry Cooder's secret weapon, that duo. For hardcore audiophiles, there was a Terry Evans solo album on Audioquest Records. |
By the way: In early-67 (I think it was), a band I hadn't heard of came to play at The Continental in Santa Clara (a converted roller rink, complete with horrible acoustics) just off Highway 101. They were named The Steve Miller Blues Band, and had a rhythm guitar player who did no singing named Boz Scaggs. Their debut album hadn't yet been released. |
If you aren't adverse to CD's, try to find a copy of Up The Line by The Gary Smith Blues Band. Gary is very well known in the San Francisco Bay Area Blues scene, and has the best harp tone I've ever heard, bar none. His mentor was Charlie Mussellwhite, and Gary's role model is The Master---Little Walter. Gary is the first harp player I played with, way back in 1969! He had just switched from drums, so we had that in common.
Gary's Facebook posts are usually about the latest tubes he has tried in his tube amps. He is VERY serious about the tone he creates, the mark of a superior musician (along with phrasing, and musicality).
The album also features great musical accompaniment from the best Blues players in the Bay Area (known locally as the Blues Mafia ;-). I've seen and heard him and they live, and if you live in the area, so should you. |
This being an Audiophile site, I have to mention the legendary Muddy Waters' album Folk Singer. Originally on Chess Records, later reissued by Mobile Fidelity, then Classic Records, and currently Analogue Productions. Great acoustic Folk Blues music (with Buddy Guy on electric guitar) in great "you are there" sound quality.
Another is Charlie Musselwhite's Times Gettin' Tougher Than Tough, a direct-to-disc LP on Crystal Clear Records. If you have never heard a d-2-d LP, prepare to be stunned!
Another is the many albums Doug MacLeod has done for Audioquest Music, the first of which (I believe ) is entitled Come To Find, with Charlie Musselwhite blowin' harp.
A few by Albert King: Born Under A Bad Sign. Original LP on Stax Records, reissued by Sundazed. Then there is Blues For Elvis, which is Albert doing songs associated with Presley. Produced by the great Booker T & The MG's rhythm section of drummer Al Jackson, Jr. and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn. Original LP on Stax Records, reissue (under the title King, Does The King's Things) by Vinyl Me Please. Mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, pressed on 180 gram vinyl (oh, the horror ;-) at QRP.
Perhaps more old school R & B than strictly Blues is Rhythm, Blues, Soul & Grooves by Bobby KIng and Terry Evans, the great duo whose singing talents are often used by Ry Cooder. Ry appears on this Rounder Records album, as does the great Spooner Oldham, member of Muscle Shoals' legendary studio band The Swampers. Spooner is also heard on Neil Young's Harvest album. Fantastic! |
