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NEWS :
STORIES
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07.10.2000 8:43 PM EDT
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This Week's Releases: Rosalie Sorrels, Lonnie Johnson ...
Lonnie Johnson material was recorded in a friend's living room, never previously released.
by
Correspondent Bliss Bowen
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Amazing Rhythm Aces, Stacked
Deck/Too Stuffed to Jump and Toucan Do It Too/Burning the
Ballroom Down (Collector's Choice Music) — Tied up in a
Byzantine tangle of licensing tape for years,
the soulful, country-blues
influenced band's 1970s recordings for the ABC label finally are being
reissued. Stacked Deck offers bandleader Russell Smith's classic "Third Rate Romance."
Lavern Baker, Precious
Memories/Lavern Sings Bessie Smith (Collectables Records) — The
1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee shows her gospel and blues
colors here, cutting loose on classic hymns such as "Precious Memories,"
"Carrying the Cross for My Boss" and "Somebody Touched Me" as well as
earthy Bessie Smith nuggets
including "Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out," "Money Blues" and
"There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." Two albums in one
package, 24 tracks total.
Bryan Bowers, Friend for
Life (Flying Fish/Rounder) — The autoharp gets a front seat on
virtuoso player Bowers' 21-track blend of bluegrass, country, mountain
folk and gospel. The old-timey collection includes "Cluck Old Hen," "Old
Joe Clark," "Glory Land," "Amazing Grace," and "Sitting on Top of the
World."
Charles Brown, Blues & Other
Love Songs (32 Records) — Aptly titled reissue gathers 20
tunes, including sublime heartbreakers such as " 'Round Midnight," "I've
Got a Right To Cry" and "Fool That I Am."
Solomon Burke, Proud Mary
— Bell Sessions (Sundazed) — The big-voiced singer's 1969
classic, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Ala., for Bell Records.
First-time-on-CD reissue includes the original 10 tracks, plus four rare
Bell singles (including "In the Ghetto") and three previously unreleased
tracks — "She Thinks I Still Care," "Change Is Gonna Come" and "The
Mighty Quinn."
Peter Bruntnell, Normal for
Bridgwater (Slow River/Rykodisc) — Son
Volt members Eric Heywood
and Dave Boquist journeyed to Boston
to join Bruntnell's band for this sometimes rootsy, sometimes rocking
album. Broad-minded lyric content runs from small-town malaise to
cryogenics to heartbreak to getting drunk on cider.
R.L. Burnside, Mississippi
Hill Country Blues (Swingmaster [UK]) — Import compilation of
19 traditional acoustic blues numbers, rearranged Mississippi juke-joint
style. Red Ramsey contributes
harmonica to "Rolling and Tumbling," one of three tunes recorded in
1967, but otherwise it's pure Burnside, straight up. Songs include "Miss
Maybelle," "Long Haired Doney," "Poor Boy," "Greyhound Bus Station."
R.L. Burnside, Ranie Burnette and Johnny Woods, Going Down South
(Swingmaster [UK]) — Fifteen-track import compilation. Five cuts
were recorded by Burnside in New Orleans in 1986 with Curtis Salgado playing harmonica on "Going
Away Blues" and a backwoods take on a classic folk tale, "Stack O'Lee
and Billy Lyons." Burnside played guitar on two of three cuts recorded
by Woods in 1984 in the Netherlands, "Suzanna Blues" and "My Jack Don't
Drink No Water." Woods recorded "So Many Cold Mornings" and "She's
Loving Another Man" at Burnside's Mississippi home in 1981. Five other
tracks were recorded by Burnette, one in Mississippi and four in the
Netherlands in 1980.
Johnny Cash, Legend at His
Best (Collectables Records) — Limited-edition two-CD box set of
the Man in Black's seminal Sun Recordings includes a copy of Cash's 1997
autobiography, "Cash" (written with Patrick Carr), and 30 songs. Tracks
include "I Walk the Line," "Get Rhythm," "Folsom Prison Blues," "Luther
Played the Boogie," Lead Belly's
"Rock Island Line," "Blue Train" and "Home of the Blues."
Charivari, I Want to Dance
With You (Rounder) — Sam
Broussard and Beausoleil's Michael
Doucet drop in to deepen the grooves with this young Cajun
band. Twelve tracks, including "The Monkey and the Fiddle," "I'm Lonely
Tonight," "Pascal's Egrets," "I Want To Dance With You."
Hazel Dickens, It's Hard To
Tell the Singer From the Song (Rounder) — Reissue of 1987 solo
bluegrassy 11-track collection by arguably one of the most influential
women in 20th-century American acoustic music.
Equation, The Lucky Few
(Putumayo) — English band's second U.S. release is a 12-track
collection of ballads and catchy folk-rock, including the radio-friendly
opener "Not the Man" and the bluesy "Hard Underground."
Roy Gaines, New Frontier
Lover (Severn) — Latest solo offering from the T-Bone Walker protégé serves up
12 tracks of electric guitar blues, including "W.C. Handy Sang the
Blues," "Texas Millionaire," "My Woman, My Blacksnake and Me," "You
Can't Make Nobody Love You" and "The World's Biggest Fool."
Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl
Ballads (Buddha) — Reissue of the folk troubadour's
career-making 1940 collection includes some of the greatest classics in
the American folk music canon, including "Do Re Me," "I Ain't Got No
Home," "Pretty Boy Floyd," "Tom Joad" and "Talking Dust Bowl Blues."
Steve Harley, Hobo With a
Grin (Blueprint [UK]) — Reissue of Harley's 1978 solo debut
includes two bonus tracks, "Spaced Out" and "That's My Life in Your
Hands." Guitarist Marc Bolan pops up
on "Amerika the Brave." Other guests include a who's-who of America's
folky/bluesy "soft rock" scene, circa 1975.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Best
of the Bizarre Sessions (Manifesto) — Latest compilation of the
wild bluesman's prodigious output offers 18 tracks, including "Ice Cream
Man," "Ol' Man River," "Heart Attack and Vine," "Shut Your Mouth When
You Sneeze," "Ignant and Shit," "Brujo."
Howard & the White Boys, Live
at Chord on Blues (Evidence) — Your basic Chicago bar band with
chops, equally at home with funk, rock and blues. Here they're in their
element — onstage, with an audience, churning out a set of
good-time blues-rock.
Wes Jeans, Hands On
(Icehouse) — The trend toward ever-younger hot blues guitarists
continues, with the 18-year-old Jeans cranking up the amps for Texas
blues-rock influenced by Freddie
King, Jimi Hendrix and
Howlin' Wolf.
Lonnie Johnson, Mr. Johnson's
Blues (Aim) — Reissue of 14 recordings made by the melodic
acoustic country-blues guitarist in the late 1920s and early '30s.
Lonnie Johnson, The Unsung
Blues Legend (Blues Magnet) — Previously unreleased living-room
concert of 17 tunes taped shortly before the influential bluesman's
death in 1970.
Freddie King, Your Move
(Blue Moon [UK]) — Nine tracks, including "Sweet Home Chicago,"
"Big Legged Woman," "Hideaway," "Ain't Gonna Worry Anymore," "Guitar
Blues."
Kingston Trio, Something
Special/Back in Town (Collector's Choice Music) — Two-disc
reissue of albums originally released by Capitol in 1962 and 1964.
Back in Town is a concert album recorded at San Francisco's
hungry i club.
Kingston Trio, Both Sides of
the Kingston Trio, Vol. 2 (Silverwolf) — Twelve more folk
classics as rendered by the prototypical early-'60s folk group,
including "Long Black Veil," "Scotch and Soda," "Hard Travellin'," "Tom
Dooley" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
The Leroi Brothers, Kings of
the Catnap (Rounder) — Twelve new originals from the Texas band
that whips up a rootsy gumbo of swamp rock, R&B and rockabilly. Jimmie Vaughan, Buck
Owens, Asleep at the
Wheel's Cindy Cashdollar,
former Faces member Ian McLagan, soulful songstress Toni Price, Jim
Lauderdale and The Band's
Garth Hudson drop by to pick 'n'
sing.
Finlay MacNeill, Fonn Is
Furan (A Tune and Welcome) (Temple Records/Rounder) — Reissue
of award-winning Scottish piper/singer's 1982 cassette-only release,
comprised of 14 Gaelic folk songs.
Doug MacLeod, Whose Truth,
Whose Lies? (AudioQuest Music) — Eighth solo album by the slyly
entertaining acoustic blues guitarist, a longtime fixture on the
Southern California blues scene who started out playing behind the likes
of Big Joe Turner, Charles Brown and Eddie Vinson.
Pete Nelson, Days Like
Horses (Signature) — Critically lauded singer/songwriter's
second album is subtitled "A novel in 15 songs," and uses divorce as
source material for an ultimately hopeful song cycle.
Michael Peloquin, House of
Cards (Globe) — Longtime blues sideman (Albert King, Johnnie
Johnson, Sy Klopps) takes
a rootsy approach on his first solo outing. Guitarist Tommy Castro guests.
Jerry Ricks, Many Miles of
Blues (Rooster Blues) — The storytelling guitarist
"Philadelphia" Jerry Ricks literally learned at the feet of Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin' Hopkins, Skip James, Son
House, Rev. Gary Davis,
Brownie McGhee and other blues
legends he booked into Philly's Second Fret cafe back in the '60s.
Memphis Slim, U.S.A.
(Candid-Navarre) — The Tennessee-born pianist developed a forceful
style after leaving Big Bill
Broonzy's employ in the early 1940s. "Born With the Blues,"
"New Key to the Highway," "Harlem Bound," "John Henry" and "I Believe
I'll Settle Down" are among the 14 songs on this somewhat ironically
titled compilation (Slim relocated to Europe in 1962 and stayed there
till his death in Paris in 1988).
Darden Smith, Extra Extra
(Valley) — The eclectic Austin, Texas-raised singer/songwriter
describes his latest solo outing as new recordings of selected old songs
from his catalog.
Rosalie Sorrels, No Closing
Chord — Songs of Malvina Reynolds (Red House) — Richly
appropriate tribute to the great social activist/folk artist
Malvina Reynolds by a woman who is
herself a much-respected standard bearer in the folk realm.
Contributions by Bonnie Raitt and
Laurie Lewis bring some marquee
wattage to the project.
Various artists, Angel From
Montgomery: Bluegrass Celebrates Bonnie Raitt (CMH) — Nuggets
from deep in the blues-loving artist's catalog are reworked with a host
of acoustic instruments — Dobro, banjo, mandolin and, yes,
harmonica. Tracks include Paul
Seibel's "Louise," Sippie
Wallace's sassy "Woman Be Wise," plus Raitt's own "Nick of
Time" and "Give It Up or Let Me Go."
Various artists, Bluegrass
Guitars Destroyed the World (CMH) — Serious shredding and
string-bending by the likes of formidable guitarist Bryan Sutton, Bluegrass Etc.'s multi-instrumental Dennis Caplinger, Laurel Canyon Ramblers' mandolinist Kenny Blackwell and banjoist David West on rock classics such as "Layla,"
"Sin Wagon" and "All Along the Watchtower." Their cuts are augmented by
three older recordings by the mighty Joe
Maphis — "Rocky Mountain Special," "Town Hall Rag," and
"Water Baby Boogie" (with guitarist Arthur
Smith).
Various artists, Pickin' on
Aerosmith (CMH) — Rock goes to the country one more time, with
a lineup of hot-fingered acoustic pickers taking on Aerosmith tunes such as "Sweet Emotion,"
"Dream On" and "Same Old Song and Dance."
(Click here for a full report on this week's releases.)
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