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Show Reviews Bush is ridin on the blues tip, heres some music for him by William Athey 1 Forum staff writer S Getting Sloppy Drunk and the moaning slow blues of Since We Been Together, this CD offers an excellent retrospective of Funderburgh and the Rockets recordings. Two instrumentals end the CD and complete the introduction. ( 4 I know blues is tired old music without any new innovations since B.B. King nicknamed his axe Lucille. I should be writing reviews of the latest college radio sensation. I would, but its on a major label (read about it in Rolling Stone), and besides, I kind of like the blues. Anyway, some of you may have the blues after the votes were tabulated. 5, d Mm The Crawl Full Moon Over Dallas Black Top The Crawl doesnt play hard boogie woogie-barrooblues. They play a smoother, slower Texas style, a style that is suitable for some Ross Perot They rely on the vocal ability of Lee McBee and Mike Morgans guitar. Dont get me wrong, McBees voice has way too much rasp for the sound to get too smooth. He also plays a pretty mean harp. Not content to stick with the blues, I Want To Be The One is country as Joe Ely and The Essential ColThe Mighty Flyers Jim Lauderdale know it. lection Hightone HCDS041 Solomon Burke soul creeps in with This is a compilation album of cuts from three albums released in the 80s. It is the Sammy Berfects organ on Come Back Home. His organ and McBees vocals confirst time any of the music has been available on compact disc. The CD features tinue the soul sound with Let Me Live and The Blues Have Come My harpist extraordinaire Rod Piazza; boogie Again Blue CatBlueshas Morgan inaT-Bon- e woogie keyboard queen Miss Honey and Way. Walker mood with the only instrubassist Bill Stuve. The Flyers original mental on the album. guitarist, Junior Watson, who has since left Marc Wilson, drums, adds a new dimenthe group, is present on all songs and their sion with his reliance on tom toms backing original drummer. Bill Swartz, plays on .McBees harp soloing on Full Moon Over nine. The drummer on the remaining three Dallas and Gypsy Moon. The album songs is Ed Mann. ends with a beatnik song, Wino Talk. The opening song, Sinister Woman Only Rhandy Simmons, bass, and Wilsons taken from the Flyers third album, is an drums back McBees spoken word vocals. excellent introduction. The song is in a The song could easily have come from an boogie woogie style with Piazzas harp talearly Tom Waits album. Overall a nicely ents showcased along with an inspired piano done album. solo from Miss Honey. Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets The next song, Take Out Some Insur7 Black Top ance, is a complete change. The song is Thru the Years like Ronnie Earl, Anson Funderburgh done in a Jimmy Reed style. Piazza apForum issues ago of reviewed a couple proaches Reeds inimitable vocal style, but there is only one Jimmy Reed. has been on Black Top for 11 years, long not quite There isnt a bad song on this disc. The enough to rate a retrospective of his career. Also like Earl, he is a guitarist, not a vocalFlyers show their versatility by switching vocal duties are handled by Darrel styles with each new song. Five Long ist; albums and Sam Myers Years is a slow Chicago blues. Id call It Nulisch on early later. AintRight a country song until Piazza cuts Nulisch has to have one of the smoothest in with the harp. voices in blues - like butter. Hes featured vocals and ChiPiazza does Texas-styl- e on the First four songs and they are among cago blowing all in the same song on Somethe best on the album. All four are covers; body. Watson lets loose some tremendous Funderburgh and the Rockets exhibit their Texas guitar licks on Texas Twister. The ability with an older, more traditional, late hottestsong on the disc is From the StartTo 50s early 60s sound. Chuck Berry guitar with The Finnish Myers is more of a shouter, and he also Piazza quoting plays a meaner harp than Nulisch. With Jerry Lee Lewis piano and the on harp. Berrys Little Queenie Myers on board, Funderburgh and the RockI could go on, but Ill just say it is a great ets won a W.C. Handy award for their album Sins. Four songs from that album, in(at compilation from an least in the United States) blues band. If you cluded here, demonstrate why it won the like the blues, powerful blues harp, New award. Orleans boogie woogie piano and outstandFunderburgh lays down guitar lines the ing blues guitar, this is a welcome addition throughout the album that could inspire to most dedicated headbanger pick up his to any collection. air guitar and play along. From the swingThe Mighty Flyers also have a new release out on Black Top which I havent ing big band blues of A Man Needs His Loving to the boogie of I Done Quit heard, but it is reportedly great. BT-10- 80 m slow-dancin- g. . BT-107- under-recogniz- ed Vols. 1, 2 & 3 Super Soul Blues Paula PCD-006, 10 . Paula is a label located in Louisiana, working to keep American music out of the import bins. Their catalog is filled with tempting blues offerings. Otis Rushs Cobra recordings, J. B. Lenoir recording for JOB , Junior Wells, Magic Sam, Lightnin Hopkins, Lowel Fulsom and Jimmy Reed. They continue to release new CDs, the latest falling in the cajun and zydeco category. I 11 save those for another issue. This group of three comes from the pile they sent La. Shes the piano player on countless regional Louisiana records. Shes had some recognition lately for her recordings on Alligator. This CD is older material recorded at Millers studio in the late 50s and early 60s. Is there any reason to buy this CD instead of the Alligator releases? Yes, I think there are several. First of all, the music is beautifully reproduced on CD. Someone took transsome care with the analog-to-digit- al fer. A second reason is the New Orleans style saxophone present on many of the 20 songs. I assume it is Lionel Prevost, Millers usual session saxophonist. There arent any liner ' notes listing session players, so I cant be sure. Whoever it is, the playing is reason enough to buy the CD. The third reason is Webster and the music. She plays some hot piano here along with her vocals. The CD exhibits Websters talent with a combination of blues, R&B, and rock n roll. Hoo Wee, swamp-po-p Sweet Daddy is so hot it blisters, with whoever on sax and Webster pounding the piano keys. Websters version of Sea of Love is included. It is probably the original version. The original was released on Dccca, but Miller probably only leased the song to the label. A curiosity is the song titled No Bread, No Meat opening the album and the same song with the title of Baby, Baby ending it a call and response song, Ashton Savoy responding to Websters calls, sounds startlingly like Jimmy Reed. The only thing missing from this CD is liner notes. I would really like to know whos on it besides Webster and Savoy. If you have Websters recordings on Alligator and like them, buy this, its better. If you dont have the Alligator recordings, buy this First. me. Ill get the complaints out of the way now. All the CDs Paula sent suffer from a serious lack of liner notes. Based on the catalog, Id say Paula is competing with labels like Rhino, Yazoo, Delmark, Arhoolie and Rounder, all of whom offer excellent liner notes with their recordings. As a collector I would at least like original release andor recording dates. The recordings in Paulas catalog have tremendous appeal to collectors, but they may not buy them without liner notes. After the complaints comes the praise. The music on the three CDs is simply wonderful. The variety of artists is truly amazing: Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Tina Walker and on Turner, Frank Frost, : and on. Vol. I has John Lee Hooker with Roll & Tumble, Tina Turner with her unmisiak-- . able voice doing Shake A Hand, and a couple of reminders to men about treating their women right. Barbara Rush tells how her bad man made his Good Woman Go Bad. Cicero Blake likes to Dip My Dipper at the request of women treated badly by their men. There are 15 songs on Vol. I, not a loser among them. Vol. II is my favorite of the set, with Aaron Neville doing Tell It Like It Is, Cookie and the Cupcakes with their biggest hit, Mathilda, and John Fred & His Playboys with one their earliest recordings, Boogie Children. Jimmy Reed is also here with one of his most famous songs, Bright Lights, Big City, and Little Johnny Taylor does the classic Everybody Knows About My Good Thing." Sixteen songs, and, again not a bad one. Vol. Ill has Tina Turner again, this time doing her version of Never BeenTo Spain. Jerry Green does Kiss and Say Goodbye and Frank Frost is included with a great I zydeco instrumental, Harp and Soul. could do without the discofied version of Johnny Nashs I Can See Clearly Now by Ric Harris. With 47 songs on three volumes, I guess you can expect one clunker. I would like to see Paula release the three CDs as a box set with liner notes. The lack of liner notes detracts from the desirability, but only slightly. There is some great music on them. All three are first rate but, as I said, Vol. II is my favorite. T-Bo- ne Katie Webster Paula PCD-1- 3 Crazy Man Floyd Miles & Friends Ichiban Wild Dog Series ICH90022-CFloyd Miles has toured with the Allman Brothers and Clarence Carter. Greg Allman contributes vocals and organ to Cold Cold World and organ to Making Believe. Edgar Winter contributes alto sax to Cold Cold World. Dickie Betts plays lead guitar D on several songs. Root Boy Slim appears on one song, No Meat In The Stew, but the success of the recording relies on the talents of the and Miles himself. Kingsnake Miles wrote or there every song All-Sta- rs co-wro- . Katie Webster was the regular session player for Jay Miller athis studio in Crowley, te are no covers. Crazy Man concentrates on the funky, soulful StaxV olt sound made famous by the Blues Brothers. Throw in some modem November 17, 1992 Continued on page 10 forum Page 9 |