Sweet Home Chicago or the bluesmen's bluesman
I'm generally suspicious of albums featuring a casting of prestigious guests. It often smells (not to say stinks) commercial concerns. This was probably the case for this Jimmy Rogers opus. Venerated by his fellow musicians, Rogers was rather ignored by the public. So in 1997 a gang of admirers agreed that this should change : Jeff Healey, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Taj Mahal, Lowell Fulson, Stephen Stills, ex-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page & Robert Plant ! Not really a bad gathering ! And contrary to my suspicions, this is really a great album ! Unfortunately J. Rogers died a few months after the recording sessions and never saw the album, published in 1999.
First, I love Jimmy Rogers voice which has a John Lee Hooker-like deep grain. Second, the recording and mixing are perfect, producing a rich enticing sound where each voice and instrument's intervention is clear. Third, the long second presentation text by George Graham, not featured above but present in the "Info" file of the download, is so complete that there's not much I can add. I advise all to read it carefully.
This great album is a concentrate of what's best in Chicago blues for the
main reason that J. Rogers was among those who forged it, particularly through his position as first guitar and composer in Muddy Waters band roughly between 1947 and 1955. He then gained his highly praised reputation among other bluesmen, including the young English blues lovers who started the famous 1960s British blues revival by giving birth to bands such as the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, the John Mayall's Blues Breakers and a whole lot of others.
Back to J. Rogers' influential role in the rising of Chicago Blues. For
example, the iconic classic "Sweet Home Chicago", covered by hundreds of bluesmen, was written by J. Rogers. Three other Rogers originals are featured here : "That's All Right", the famous "Ludella " and "Goin' Away Baby". "Gonna Shoot You Right Down (Boom Boom)" is a Jimmy Rogers/John Koenig/John Lee Hooker collaboration. Muddy Waters is here through two tracks, as well as Jimmy Reed, Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson and Maceo Merriweather, each on one.
On the guests side, Clapton is particularly brilliant on "Blues All Day Long" and "That's All Right". Nothing much to say about Jeff Healey on "Blow Wind Blow" : he delivers a nice guitar solo. Taj Mahal left his guitar, and choose harmonica and vocal. He is perfect on "Bright Lights Big City" and "Ludella", as is Lowell Fulson on "Ev'ry Day I Have The Blues", but the contrary would have been surprising. After all, they're at home.
The inseparable pair Jagger-Richards are so much at ease that they've been entitled to three tracks : the boogies "Trouble No More" and "Goin' Away Baby", and "Don't Start Me To Talkin'". Despite his easily identified nasal vocal texture, Jagger knows how to sing the blues, no doubt about it, and he shares vocals with J. Rogers without any inhibition.
The case of Stephen Stills is interesting because this excellent guitar player hasn't been much devoted to blues since the cult 1969 Super Session album with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield. But he shows here that he hasn't lost his blues abilities both in singing and on guitar, bringing a very personal distorted sound on "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Worried Life Blues".
Finally is the puzzling case of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on "Gonna Shoot You Right Down". If the first is excellent as usual but discreet, the second causes the only disappointment of the album. Robert Plant is a fantastic singer, probably one of the very best in rock, but blues is not really his cup of tea, it seems, and he doesn't sound at the right place.
The two excellent harmonica specialists, Carey Bell and Kim Wilson, and great pianist Johnnie Johnson are really superb and the album wouldn't be the same without them. Last, Jimmy D. Lane, credited on guitar, is of course Jimmy Rogers' son. He made a career for himself and recorded some really interesting rocking Hendrix-influenced blues albums. But that's a different story…
1-Blow Wind Blow : McKinley Morganfield a.k.a Muddy Waters
2-Blues All Day Long : James A. Lane a.k.a Jimmy Rogers
3-Trouble No More : Muddy Waters
4-Bright Lights Big City : Jimmy Reed
5-Ev'ry Day I Have The Blues : Memphis Slim (as Peter Chatman)
6-Sweet Home Chicago : Jimmy Rogers
7-Don't Start Me To Talkin' : Rice Miller a.k.a Sonny Boy Williamson
8-That's All Right : Jimmy Rogers
9-Ludella : Jimmy Rogers
10-Goin' Away Baby : Jimmy Rogers
11-Worried Life Blues : Maceo Merriweather
12-Gonna Shoot You Right Down : Jimmy Rogers/John Koenig/John Lee Hooker
Who did what ?
- Bass : Freddie Crawford
- Drums : Ted Harvey
- Piano : Johnnie Johnson (tracks 1 to 3, 5 to 12)
- Harmonica : Carey Bell (tracks 2, 5, 8, 12), Kim Wilson (tracks 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11)
- Guitar : Jimmy D. Lane, Jimmy Page (tracks 12), Keith Richards (tracks 3, 7, 10), John Koenig (tracks 4)
- Vocals : Mick Jagger (tracks 3, 7, 10, 12), Robert Plant (tracks 12)
- Vocals + Harmonica : Taj Mahal (tracks 4, 9)
- Vocals + Guitar : Eric Clapton (tracks 2, 8, 12), Jeff Healey (tracks 1), Jimmy Rogers (all tracks), Lowell Fulson (tracks 5), Stephen Stills (tracks 6, 11)
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