onurblues: U.P. Wilson, chapter one - Whirlwind: 20th Anniversary Reissue (remastered+7 bonus tracks) (2016)

August 12, 2022

U.P. Wilson, chapter one - Whirlwind: 20th Anniversary Reissue (remastered+7 bonus tracks) (2016)

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One hell of a Texas blues album !

Born in 1934 around Shreveport, Louisiana, Huary Perry Wilson and his family soon moved to Dallas. In the late 1970s he relocated to Fort Worth and performed in local clubs and blues bars with musicians like drummer-singer Robert Ealey in a band called "Boogie Chillun" that became the main attraction of the New Bluebird club. Inspired by guitarists like ZuZu Bollin, Lightnin' Hopkins' cousin Frankie Lee Sims and Cornell Dupree, Wilson slowly built a solid guitar-slinger reputation on stage even while he hadn't recorded any album yet ! He had to wait 1987 to be given the possibility to do so and his debut record, "On My Way" came out in 1988, four years after SRV debut "Texas Flood".

There are similarities between both men, starting by their sound signature and amazing technical virtuosity, but we won't enter the endless quarrel about which one influenced the other, though the truth might just be found in their age difference (Wilson being born twenty years earlier).

Living half in France, where he took refuge after a six month jail term in 1967-68 for alleged cocaine possession, and half in Texas, and touring abundantly in the US and Europe, Wilson signed in the mid-1990s with the UK label JSP founded in 1979 by John Stedman.

During a tour of Great-Britain in 1996, Wilson entered the Falconer Studio in London studio and cut some twenty tracks for JSP. To be honest the seven bonus tracks featured on this special 20th Anniversary remastered reissue, had already been released along with three other on the 1999 album "Booting", Wilson's last one before his death in Paris in 2004.

These twenty tracks, well run on the road, were recorded with the same musicians during the same recording session, produced by JSP's boss, John Stedman. This doesn't lower in any way the interest of this remastered release.

One last detail to clarify : the Big Joe Tuner playing bass and organ on this session must not be mistaken with his elder homonym from Kansas City, Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., "the" Big Joe Turner.

Three successive tracks are enough to give a good idea of Wilson's blues style : the hot shuffle "Walk That Walk, the laid-back soulful blues "Your Last Chance" and the swinging jazzy "Juicin'". All his production stands in between these three lines. Wilson is an authentic bluesman : inspired songs, great vocals and fantastic guitar style and sound.

This being clearly stated, all one has to do is listen and shiver at these seventeen pieces of modern Texas blues of the best kind. Certainly a highly inspired improviser, Wilson puts a little inventive extra touch into each track, never repeating himself. He is also an outstanding singer with a very appealing voice.

Wilson alternates typical Texas barn-burning shuffles and boogies ("Roll Over", Walk That Walk", "Going Round In A Daze", "Bluesola", "Come On Baby, Go Home With Me", "Made Up My Mind", "Texas Squaling", "Let Her Go", Rock Me") with slower extremely soulful blues, among the most exciting tracks of the album ("Your Last Chance", "Deep Down Inside", "If You Don't Know How To Act (Your Place Is At Home)", "You Say You Love Me", "Crazy Things") and some titles closer to the rural tradition ("Who Will Your Next Fool Be ?", "I Believe"). Standing apart is the great jazzy Texas swing instrumental "Juicin'" : we regret there are not one or two more in the same vein.

Yes really, this is one hell of a Texas blues album ! ■