Drink Small - Does It All (2003)

> The album

The Blues Doctor

It starts with an old piano sounding like it's coming straight from one of these old times downtown Chicago, New Orleans or Charleston sleazy joints. Suddenly surges a deep voice singing "I Wanna Make Love" ! On the next song, an old steel guitar rings, sounding as old-time as the piano. The guy is laughing while singing his stories. It all sounds down-home rustic, it often sounds gospel, it sounds different, funny and tragic at the same time, it sounds... Drink Small.

With such a name (his real name ― how could his parents name him "Drink" ?!) the guy couldn't be anything but unique. His unusually profound voice takes you while his fingers run on the piano keys in a hazardous race sometimes close to the hitch of a wrong note ("Bingo Lover") or screech on the guitar strings.

His songs, most of them self-penned and sometimes full of humor, mix Piedmont blues, juke-joint piano, ragtime, boogie or gospel, often punctuated with jokes and laughter. He explains how he got his moniker : “They call me the Blues Doctor ‘cause I can play all the styles : bottleneck, ragtime, Piedmont blues, Chicago blues. I can tear them up. I am the Blues Doctor.” On this album, he is alone on piano or guitar, only backed sometimes by a small female choir.

Born in 1933 in Bishopville in South Carolina, right in the Piedmont region, Drink "The Blues Doctor" Small is a living legend in his native area. He started his musical life singing gospel before turning to blues at the end of the 1950s. He slowly lost his eyesight from old age and became blind in 2014, but the man still went on performing, as can be seen on some of the videos listed below. In between, he recorded eight albums , and appeared on several regional blues compilations. "Does It All" in 2003 is the sixth one. Not so small, isn't it ? 

 

Video interviews & lives
> A short interview around 2007 : https://youtu.be/MSBREWbeMfI
> On Fox TV about the Sweet Palmetto Blues Festival in 2012 : https://youtu.be/rEbnkB7zdKg
> Guitar picking demonstration by the "Blues Doctor" in his living room in 2008 : https://youtu.be/adN05Co_MXc 

 

> 86 and blind but still performing, here at the 23rd Carolina Downhome Blues Fest in 2019 : https://youtu.be/VgZfHdKJ7iE
> At the same Carolina Downhome Blues Fest in 2018 : https://youtu.be/SOdsXzSNieQ
> At 85 at the Festival of Discovery in Greenwood, SC, in 2018 : https://youtu.be/OUaHq4JTK0U
> At the South Carolina Pecan Festival in 2017 (43mn) : https://youtu.be/fwTrjUbXyJI
> Remembering his friend James Brown, University of SC, in 2015 : https://youtu.be/kyKnSIn8Iwo
> At a school program in Columbia, SC, in 2015 : https://youtu.be/8L-R6q2hN1o
> Celebrating his 82nd birthday with musical friends & guests at the 145 Club in Winnsboro, SC, in 2013 (39mn) : https://youtu.be/nNTMoi12Dy8
> At Chickie Wah Wah in New Orleans in 2013 : https://youtu.be/ovGv4ZbO_5A
> At the Jus Blues Music Awards in 2013 : https://youtu.be/sbidyd6A2iA
> At the 145 Club in Winnsboro, SC :
   - In 2011 : https://youtu.be/hXyXBv5uVHs
   - In 2012  : https://youtu.be/BA-y2v0K1oQ
> At the Lowcountry Blues Bash in Charleston, SC, in 2012 : https://youtu.be/22EbCZrtQWE
> At the Jubilee Festival of Heritage in Columbia, SC, in 2011 : https://youtu.be/5PuoWpsNOoM
> At the Hunter Gatherer in 2009 : https://youtu.be/ncXj1fL9LKU

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