→ Thanks to L. C.
The miraculous album
Born in April 1937 in St. Martinville, Louisiana, in a Creole French speaking family, Hypolite did not learn English until going to school at the age of 6. He had a rough youth, obliged to drop out after the fourth grade to go out and work : from about 12 years old he cut sugar cane, dug sweet potatoes or picked okra and cotton.
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| In the early years |
At the beginning of the 1950's, he managed to buy an electric guitar and a few records, and learned to play by himself trying to reproduce what he heard on the records.
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| Clifton Chenier |
He learned so well that he could later work part-time as a musician, backing Big Mama Thornton, Slim Harpo or Clifton Chenier. In the early 1980s, Chenier asked him to join his Red Hot Louisiana Band full time. Hypolite played all over the world behind the “King of Zydeco” until Chenier's death in 1987 and his son C.J. Chenier became the band's leader. Hypolite stayed with him until 1999, when he left to start a solo career as well as playing regularly with Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas whose leader Nathan Williams was his nephew (or cousin).
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| C.J. Chenier |
The material was captured live in the studio with APO's famous “direct-to-disc” analog recording process (without any overdubs or post-production tricks) and the album was released the following year (2001) as a top-sounding Hybrid SACD.
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| Nathan Williams |
The result is highly impressive and enjoyable. At last it brought Hipolyte the recognition he long deserved after playing for some 50 years : the record was nominated for a Handy Award (category "Best New Artist Debut" !) and opened him the doors of some of the most respected blues festivals (Monterey, Lucerne, New Orleans…)
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| Chad Kassem |
“Louisiana Country Boy” features 12 pearls : half are Hipolyte's originals (including “Milk Cow Blues”, a different song from Kokomo Arnold's identically titled song, though probably inspired by it), four are covers of Clifton Chenier, and the remaining two were written by the pair J. Mayo Williams-”Stick” McGhee (younger brother of Brownie McGhee) for one, the famous “Wine Spoodee-O-Dee”, and for the second one, “Just A Little Bit”, by jazz pianist Earl Washington with three co-authors.
Hypolite, on vocals and guitar, is accompanied by a fine band led by Jimmy D. Lane (*), known for his appealing style on guitar and dobro. Big John Amaro brings the churchy atmosphere of his Hammond B-3 while bassist Loui Villeri and drummer Bruce Cahoon form a flawless rhythm section perfect on all tempos.
All was ready for a superb recording of low down blues alternating hip shaking numbers with slower swampy tracks. Even more than Hypolite's raw but fluid guitar playing, it's his voice that makes this album so special : powerful, rasping and drawling, it flows straight from the haunted soul of a man who has experienced the hard sides of life, from the “Milk Cow Blues” lament to the nostalgic “Louisiana Country Boy”, through the heartbreaking “Someday” and the gently rolling “For Better Or For Worse”.
In the album's liner notes, Scott Jordan writes : “[…] Hypolite has bottled pure emotion by writing and singing autobiographical songs that reach all the way back to his childhood. He's been waiting for this moment for so long, played it over in his head so many times, that almost every song on this recording was done in one take, with no lyric sheets. […] For three of the songs ― "For Better or Worse", "Big Bad Girl" and "Louisiana Country Boy" ― Harry improvised on the spot.”
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| Jamming with Jimmy D. Lane |
Hypolite and the band take the opening “The Sun Is Shining” on a muscular pounding beat, the outstanding version of “Wine Spoodee-O-Dee” as a rejoicing jump blues, while the lively version of “Just A Little Bit” is delivered in a Louisiana R'n'B style, and “Big Bad Girl” on a rock'n'roll mode.Unsurprisingly Clifton Chenier's shadow hangs around “Colinda”, “You Used To Call Me”, “Hog For You Baby”, on which Hypolite Creole French mixture gives a special flavor, and around the moving gospel-B-3 mood of the final “I'm Coming Home”, reminding that Chenier was not only the godfather of modern Zydeco but also a real bluesman.
The intensity of Hypolite vocals is simply incredible and beautiful, making him an outstanding blues singer, and this album a real pearl and definitely a must-have. ■
(*) Lane is the son of Chicago blues legend Jimmy Rogers, and was also the musical director of Blue Heaven Studios at the time.
The Album
► Rare VHS images, unfortunately of bad quality, of Clifton Chenier in the 1980s with son C.J. Chenier on sax, brother Cleveland Chenier on rubboard, and Harry Hypolite on guitar with a nice solo around 30'00. (Note the one-arm drummer in the first part ! In the last 7 minutes, the guitar is held by Li'l Buck Sinegal) : https://youtu.be/BgN4Zyg6GHo
► Sound check at The Bluesmasters, Salina, KS, 2007 : https://youtu.be/wyHKp1uTIoU |
| Harry
Hypolite with his wife Margaret in front of their devastated shotgun house in Cade, after a tropical storm hit Louisiana in the early 2000s. |
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