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John Primer: Almost unplugged
Unusual to hear John Primer, a Chicago electric blues fixture, play acoustic (only the last four "bonus" tracks feature electric numbers with a local blues band). Ten unplugged songs which remind a reality often ignored : the Chicago electric style is directly derived from Delta country blues. Precisely Primer was born in Mississippi just like the blues greats he played with in the 1970s-80s : Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Magic Slim… Born in 1945, he moved up north to Chicago in 1963 at age 18. His childhood dream came true in 1980 when Waters formed a new band, the Legendary Blues Band, and called him to fill the second guitar and bandleader position.
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Chicago Bob Nelson: Totally unplugged
Chicago Bob Nelson ain't superstitious : he sings about going down to Louisiana to get himself a mojo hand, but he doesn't mind having 13 songs on his album ! More seriously, Louisiana born Robert Lee Nelson was mentored by Slim Harpo and Lazy Lester, two friends of his father, during his teens. He moved to Chicago in the early 1960s and performed with musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Earl Hooker and Muddy Waters who gave him his "Chicago Bob" nickname.
In 1965 he went to Boston and teamed up with Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson until Johnson's death in 1976. In 1980, he joined Tinsley Ellis' band The Heartfixers, played with a Memphis band named The Shadows in the late 1980s, and later in John Lee Hooker’s Coast to Coast Blues Band for the last years of Hooker’s life. CBN died in 2013 after a little dozen albums under his name.
John Primer: Almost unplugged
Unusual to hear John Primer, a Chicago electric blues fixture, play acoustic (only the last four "bonus" tracks feature electric numbers with a local blues band). Ten unplugged songs which remind a reality often ignored : the Chicago electric style is directly derived from Delta country blues.
Precisely Primer was born in Mississippi just like the blues greats he played with in the 1970s-80s : Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Magic Slim… Born in 1945, he moved up north to Chicago in 1963 at age 18. His childhood dream came true in 1980 when Waters formed a new band, the Legendary Blues Band, and called him to fill the second guitar and bandleader position.
When Waters died in 1983, Primer joined Magic Slim's Teardrops on rhythm guitar. Teaming up with Slim's brother, bass player Nick Holt, both men developed an innovative rhythmic pattern known as the "lump de lump" that soon became dominant in the Chicago blues sound. Primer stayed in the band for 13 years, while also paying regularly at Buddy Guy's Checkerboard Lounge with many famous Chicago blues musicians. In the early 1990s, he embarked on his own career.
So in August of 1996, as he was on a South America tour, he played three nights at Buenos Aires' Blues Special Club. Guitarist Omar Itcovici, from the club's regular band, recalls this visit in the presentation published above. The shows were recorded and the best takes are released on this album.
The ten acoustic tracks show that in addition to being a skilled acoustic guitarist, Primer is a very appealing vocalist and a very lively showman, shouting many "All Right" (hence the album's title) to keep the audience attention and make them participate, like on "All Right, Okey", which they loudly do.
The songs performed are classics like "Still A Fool", "Rock Me Baby", the excellent "Kansas City", "I'm In The Mood" or the definite R'n'B "That's All I Need". More surprising and disputable is the peculiar choice of a country number like "Rhinestone Cowboy" that doesn't fit with the rest even if it's short.
Primer turns back electric on the last four long bonus tracks, backed by the local band, particularly on exciting extended versions of "Got My Mojo Working" and "Country Boy" (featuring nice harmonica work by Esteban Garcia) on which Primer delivers a great guitar sound.
This album might be considered as a minor one in Primer's discography, this wouldn't be fair : it's in fact quite appealing to discover the acoustic side of the man. ■● The 1996 Buenos Aires' Blues Special Club show live :
Chicago Bob Nelson: Totally unplugged
Chicago Bob Nelson ain't superstitious : he sings about going down to Louisiana to get himself a mojo hand, but he doesn't mind having 13 songs on his album !
More seriously, Louisiana born Robert Lee Nelson was mentored by Slim Harpo and Lazy Lester, two friends of his father, during his teens. He moved to Chicago in the early 1960s and performed with musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Earl Hooker and Muddy Waters who gave him his "Chicago Bob" nickname.
In 1965 he went to Boston and teamed up with Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson until Johnson's death in 1976. In 1980, he joined Tinsley Ellis' band The Heartfixers, played with a Memphis band named The Shadows in the late 1980s, and later in John Lee Hooker’s Coast to Coast Blues Band for the last years of Hooker’s life. CBN died in 2013 after a little dozen albums under his name.
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| Acoustic duo, here with Tony Briant |
Released on the Music Maker Relief Foundation's label (1), "Tell Me Mama" presents CBN in an acoustic country blues configuration with just the guitar of Atlanta musician Ross "Peadboy" Pead. Thirteen songs from famous classic standards like "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", Sleepy John Estes' "Rats In My Kitchen", "Mighty Crazy", "I'm Going Down To The Valley" or "Key To The Highway" to more obscure works like "Blood Red River", "Alabama Greyhound Blues" or "Moppers Blues", performed in a laid-back low-down style like two friends jamming on the front porch one evening. CBN's cool vocals are relayed by his second voice, the harmonica, carried by Peadboy's acoustic guitar.
The album might sound as lacking energy to some, but it's unpretentious and relaxing to listen to. What else is needed after a hard day's work ? ■
(1) The Music Maker Relief Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 by Timothy Duffy and his wife Denise, to preserve the musical traditions of the South by directly supporting musicians threatened by poverty and old age.
Videos
● In Lugano (Switzerland) in 1991 with the Gary Erwin Blue Light Special band (CBN enters in the middle of the video) : https://youtu.be/MoxRKA4KGas [G. Erwin : piano & vocals - Eddie Philips : guitar - Jerry Hiers : bass - Jay Niver : drums - David Coulter : sax]
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