Lonesome Sundown – Been Gone Too Long (1977)

→ Thanks to L. C.

The last swamp boogie

John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun" was the first song that he learned to play on guitar. He was about 20, his name was Cornelius Green III and he was living in his native town of Donaldsonville (Louisiana), some 40 kms south of Baton Rouge, on the West bank of the Mississippi river, a town famous for being the first in the US to elect an African-American mayor following the Civil War, in 1868.

Very young he was working with his family in the cane fields. At the age of 18, he moved to New Orleans where he worked in various jobs for a couple of years before returning home in 1948 when, inspired by Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, he began taking guitar lessons from a cousin.

A Port Arthur refinery in the early 20th century

In 1953, after a short period as a truck driver in Jeanerette (Louisiana), he moved to Port Arthur (Texas) to work at the Gulf Oil Refinery. By this time he had become a good guitarist, jamming at local clubs, and in 1955, he was invited by Clifton Chenier to sit in with his new band, the Zydeco Ramblers, at the Blue Moon Club in Lake Charles.

As a result, Chenier offered him the post of second guitarist in the band, next to first guitarist Phillip Walker, also from Louisiana. Green toured with Chenier as far as Chicago and Los Angeles, but a few months later, just married and eager to work on his own material, he left the Zydeco Ramblers, and moved to Opelousas (Louisiana) where he joined the local trio of drummer Lloyd Reynauld, regularly gigging at the Domino Lounge in Eunice.

Sundown and Jay Miller

Most of all, he recorded a demo tape, and took it to legendary producer J. D. "Jay" Miller's studio in Crowley. Truly impressed, Miller, who later described his somber, melancholic and instantly recognizable style as "the sound of the swamp", re-baptized him “Lonesome Sundown”.

During his almost ten years with Miller, Sundown recorded about 16 singles, printed and distributed by the Nashville-based label Excello Records with whom Miller had a deal.

Actually a number of songs Sundown recorded then were not released at the time. They came out later on three volumes from “The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions” series (see discography below).

Phillip Walker

Disillusioned by the lack of commercial success due to the Excello distribution mode ― the singles were mostly sold through mail orders after being advertised on radio stations ―, realizing he wasn't any richer and disturbed by a traumatic divorce, he quit the music business in 1965 to devote his life to the church and eventually become a minister, taking back his real name Cornelius Green.

Twelve years later, his friend Phillip Walker persuaded him to come out of his musical retirement and return to the studios. He did and cut “Been Gone Too Long” in 1977 in Los Angeles : a fine collection of laid-back blues, co-produced by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker (no relation with Phillip) for the Joliet label.

At the San Francisco Blues Fest 1978

An excellent comeback album, praised in the blues circles, but once again sales were bitterly disappointing (even after being reissued on Alligator two years later).

In the aftermath he recorded the album “From LA. to L.A.” with his friend Phillip Walker in 1979, and appeared on some rare live performances : San Francisco Blues Festival in 1978, tours of Sweden and Japan with Phillip Walker, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1979... After that, the swamp blues master disappeared from the music business.

Again he retired, for good this time. In 1994 he suffered a stroke and was no longer able to speak. He died in Gonzales, Louisiana, in April 1995, in his 67th year.

The Album

Certainly one of the most exciting example of what is known as “swamp blues”, this recording establishes Sundown as a prominent actor of the genre.

Bruce Bromberg

Apart from himself of vocal an guitar, the line-up features on guitar his old accomplice since their Chenier's period, Phillip Walker, and his homonym but unrelated co-producer and songwriter Dennis Walker on bass. David Majal Li is in charge of the horns on a few tracks, while three different musicians share the keyboards : Bill Murray, Ernest Vantrease and Nat Dove. Franchot Blake sits at the drums, and percussion are in the hands of Aaron Tucker (three tracks) and Choctaw Slim.

Dennis Walker

Sundown's slow or fast hypnotic rhythm, his powerful but fluid guitar playing and his strong personal taste for reverb, constitute the basis of his original style, globally closer to Muddy Waters than to the usual one-chord boogies or the more lyrical style of the Zydeco bands where he (and Phillip Walker) got started.

Immediate illustration with the outstanding opening track, “They Call Me Sundown”, a deep dive in Sundown's unique spellbinding swamp sound . His distinctive drawling voice (“They call me Sundown, I do my best work in the dark…”) lays over the attractive reverb guitar that certainly was a treat for John Fogerty's ears. The song, as well as “Louisiana Lover Man”, was co-written by Sundown with one mysterious D. Amy, in fact one of Bruce Bromberg's songwriting pseudos.

In the same reverberated swamp blues vein is “Just Got To Know” from pianist Jimmy McCracklin whose real name was James David... Walker, a name that seems to haunt the album !

Sundown is perfectly at ease on any rhythmic style : on laid-back slow or mid-tempo soulful blues enlightened by his so distinctive guitar sound, like the superb “One More Night” (a Dennis Walker song), the appealing “Dealin' From The Bottom Of The Deck” (despite a messy drums ending), the reverb-filled “Just Got To Know”, “You Don't Miss Your Water” (a song from one W. Bell as soulful as it is slow), and the heavy “If You Ain't Been To Houston” (also penned by Dennis Walker).

He is equally impeccable on fast driven numbers like the highly grooving rock'n'roll “Louisiana Lover Man” (where one can perceive some Chuck Berry's influence), on his funny grooving version of Jimmy Johnson's “Black Cat Bone” played in a style close to funk with fine reverb guitars again, or on his pounding original “I Betcha”.

Tony Matthews

He's even pretty good in the crooner's role on one of the highlight of the album : the unique gospel soul “Midnight Blues Again” (another Dennis Walker number), with churchy backing vocals, and Tony Mathews, who used to tour with Ray Charles and Little Richard, replacing Phillip Walker on guitar.

Phillip Walker

The 1991 Hightone Records re-issue on CD features a final bonus track, another captivating slow blues, “This Is The Blues”, with Sundown's and Walker's jangling guitars.

Yes, it's definitely a great opus, I would even say exceptional. This reverb guitar is just so entrancingly hypnotizing ! In a way “Been Gone Too Long” is to Louisiana swamp blues what Fred McDowell's “I Do Not Play No Rock & Roll” (1969) is to Mississippi blues. Two masterpieces !

When you hear such an album, you feel like singing “Glory, glory” and praise Heaven to have given men such a talent as creating music ! ■

Discography
L.S. has recorded only two full albums. Most of his recordings have been released on singles, and appear on numerous compilations. He also recorded with a few other artists : Clifton Chenier in 1955, Leroy Washington in 1959 and 1981, Rosco Chenier with The Blue Runners in 1962.

● Original albums
► “Been Gone Too Long”, Joliet 1977, Alligator 1979, Sonet 1980, Hightone 1991 : https://youtu.be/__qTyAbPON4
► “From LA To L.A.” with Phillip Walker, recorded in 1979, released on Rounder Records in 1982 : https://youtu.be/MYCuKNvRIGA
● Compilations
► “Lonesome Sundown”, Excello 1969 & 1980, Blue Horizon 1970 (12 tracks) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxmwLd1VLs2hP7Wk0kD813Yg-94yHg6NY
► “Lonesome Lonely Blues, 1956-65”, Blue Horizon 1970, P-Vine Records 1992 (16 tracks) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaBIVksB98Ai_FeJTxVlguU3lxo3USZ6Z
► The Legendary Jay Miller Sessions :
→ Volume 8 : “Bought Me A Ticket”, Flyright Records 1976 (12 tracks) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxmwLd1VLs2juu8GGdXvqvdzfwGTGlKZh
→ Volume 29 : "Lonesome Whistler 1956~58”, Flyright 1983 (12 tracks) 
→ Volume 52 : “If Anybody Asks You", Flyright 1988 (14 tracks) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxmwLd1VLs2gOG8S88cvGrmVer97z2ME4
► “Lonesome Sundown”, Flyright 1990 (21 tracks) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxmwLd1VLs2j2VZzxbpG74TApRSUHpSuf
► “I'm A Mojo Man : The Best Of The Excello Singles”, an excellent 24-track compilation of L.S. work, Excello/Ace 1994, Excello 1995 : https://youtu.be/RX4D8QnvFVw
► “Mojo Man - The Complete 1956-1963 Excello Singles”, Soul Jam 2020.
► “Lonely Lonely Me”, date and label unknown (10 tracks) : https://youtu.be/FmwwR7bGaXk
● And also…
► Phillip Walker/Lonesome Sundown : “Crawl Back To Louisiana”, P-Vine 1979, Rounder Records 1982. But both men are featured separately except on track 1 already released on “From LA To L.A.”

“The” video
► The only live performance of L.S. available on YT : a rare VHS video of a show on television, Sweden, 1979 : https://youtu.be/K4jusMkrSVI

 

 

  Lonesome Sundown, 1928-1995