onurblues: Update > Louisiana Red - Over My Head (1997) / I Hear The Train Coming (1997)

July 26, 2022

Update > Louisiana Red - Over My Head (1997) / I Hear The Train Coming (1997)

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Red's vintage roots

Louisiana Red's life is the archetype of a bluesman life with its usual mysteries, starting by the origin of his "Louisiana Red" stage name, and by his exact birth place and date : Iverson Minter was actually born either in Bessemer (Alabama) in March 1932 or in Vicksburg (Mississippi) in 1936 ! In the excellent "Blow Train" on "Over My Head", he might give a clue : "Oh train take me back to my hometown… I'm going back to Vicksburg, back to my old hometown… Way down Vicksburg, Mississippi, back down where I belong."

His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father was lynched by the Klan in 1937. He possibly spent several years in an orphanage in New Orleans (which could explain his nickname) before going to live with his grand-mother in Pittsburgh.

In 1950 he joined the US Army as a parachutist (the man's stature is massive) and was sent to Korea. When he was discharged, he played with John Lee Hooker in Detroit for a couple of years in the late 1950s, and recorded under the name Rocky Fuller.

In the 1960s and 1970s he recorded a good amount of albums as Louisiana Red, and in 1981 he moved to Hanover in Germany where he spent the rest of his life. He died in 2012 at either almost 80 or 76 leaving behind him an impressive discography of over fifty albums.

As perfectly presented by our Blue Dragon friends Blue DeVille & Lou Cypher, "Over My Head" opens with the a-Capella gospel lament "Living In A World Of Sin" and continues with low-down southern roots acoustic country and folk blues, on regular or dobro steel guitar punctuated by some harmonica.

"Over My Head" is a treat for country blues fans. Red sings stories with a very personal and appealing vocal style, often rising his voice to funny high pitch levels, and his plain guitar sounds as roots as can be, sometimes enhanced by box foot stomping.

A gifted story teller and songwriter, Red runs through an exciting collection of original songs (except Leiber & Stoller's "Run Red Run"), all so good that I would be in trouble picking up any as more outstanding than the others, not even a big piece like "How Long Is A Man Got To Suffer?" or the traditional standard "John Henry".

"I Hear The Train Coming" was recorded during the same sessions as "Over My Head" but in a trio configuration : behind Red and his acoustic and dobro guitars are two German musicians, producer Detlef Schmidt on upright bass and Holger Mock on drums. This rhythm section gives a special groove to this twin album.

Red shows his same taste for train songs with two titles this time : "Mystery Train" and the outstanding and jubilating long closing boogie "I Hear The Train Coming" where Red is suddenly playing guitar and harmonica in different styles ("let's go to Chicago, Red… let's go down to Memphis") and imitating the train's whistle while he's playing around with his voice too.

This false last number is actually featuring a surprising untitled hidden track extension about an imaginary meeting with Robert Johnson. He's also taking us for a trip to Africa and particularly Ethiopia on the eponymous song, a place rarely and oddly dealt with by American blues artists.

The rest of the album features the same kind of appealing low-down swampy acoustic blues, with notable numbers like the opening "Lisa", "Tell Me Baby", "You Can't Fool Me" or "Blues Stay Away From Me"…

Red's laid-back guitar, regular acoustic or steel dobro, slide-played most of the time, his gritty vocals and his harmonica are a real delight for the ears.
Louisiana Red was a vintage bluesman, an almost disappeared species, and these twin albums are the best proofs of it. ■

Documentary
● "Louisiana Red: Red and Blues", 2005 : https://youtu.be/8yuLxnY-LY0

Live videos

● With Ronnie Earl and Sugar Ray Norcia, Regatta Bar, 2011 : https://youtu.be/1gpvPfJXYvk

● With Ronnie Earl & the Bluetones, 2011 : https://youtu.be/RvXyKAGP3Mg

● With Al Jones Band, Reigen Club, Vienna (Austria), 2011 : https://youtu.be/gYKYty71W8w

● R Bar, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 2011 : https://youtu.be/ulqdiOpn-Kc

● With Marco Farris (harmonica), Palermo (Italy), 2010 : https://youtu.be/59Y3lWS3MH8

● With Michael Messer Band, 2009  : https://youtu.be/pqgSlfm0GWE

and https://youtu.be/T08T24WuthE

With Stellios Vamvakaris on bouzouki (left)

● With Lance Lopez, Hanover (Germany), 2009 : https://youtu.be/R5muxcP6ncU

● With Greek bouzouki player Stelios Vamvakaris, backing singer Evelina and the Greek band Blues Wire, Athens (Greece), 2008 : https://vimeo.com/32199917 or https://youtu.be/lF2Bd0YRrXY

[In 1988, Louisiana Red recorded with Vamvakaris an album mixing blues and "rebetiko", a popular Greek music genre originally brought in the 1920s by Greek communities who flew away from the Aegean coast of Turkey (Smyrna/Izmir) after the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War.]

● With the Baum's Bluesbenders Band, Bonn (Germany), 2007 : https://youtu.be/k9Z_UPHZxAQ