onurblues

May 05, 2022

Toby Walker - Hand Picked (2008)

Walkin' with Master Walker

The old red tractor on the front cover sets things straight and clear : we're bound for a tour of rural American music : country blues, rag, folk and countryfied bluegrass (or maybe the opposite). And, as the title "Hand Picked" double-entendre announces, we're invited to a harvest of great ripe finger-style guitar. Toby Walker, who lost his nickname "Little" long ago for good reasons, is rambling around his musical orchard with his acoustic guitars, backed on some tracks by a minimal drumless band featuring excellent fiddler Jay Ungar and upright acoustic or electric bass by Molly Mason or Tom Griffith.

We already talked about the man's career in our review of his 2011 album "Shake Shake Mama" (1), so this time let's concentrate solely on the musical content of this album.

When you hear the amazing sound of Walker's National Steel guitar on "Hey Good Lookin'" or on his incredible version of "Mind Your Own Business", two Hank Wiliams covers, his extraordinary Piedmont finger-picking style on "Better Luck Next Time", or his slide technique on his original "Little Dixie", you know you're hearing a master at work. Nothing being more difficult to record than an acoustic guitar, be it a steel one, you understand he was brilliantly served by the two sound engineers, Larry Moser and Gilbert Hetherwick. Moreover when you listen to half of his lyrics, or those of the songs he adapted or chose to cover, you realize the guy has a serious sense of humor ! On top of that he's not only a top guitarist but also a great story teller, and an excellent singer. What else do you need to enjoy fifty memorable minutes of acoustic music ?!

Walker's guitar wanders through blues, rag, folk and bluegrass-tinged country music with equal talent, enhanced by the beat of the bass on six tracks, and on four tracks conversing with the old-time earthly sound of the fiddle that transports you in some backforests and mountains of the Appalachians.

The jumping bluegrassy tempo of the opening "Big Meat Shakin' On The Bone" announces the general tone of  the album : steel guitar, upright bass, nimble fiddle and funny lyrics. The two Hank Williams songs are outstanding pieces of American rural folklore, especially the fantastic "Mind Your Own Business", again such an incredible lesson of finger-picking style that it would discourage any guitar beginner ! Tracks like "Central Islip Jail Blues" or "Mama Keeps Her Kitchen Clean" illustrate the man's humorous storytelling talent worth that of a real short story writer.

With his version of the traditional "Work Holler", Walker takes us right down in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, which is also the land of Skip James for whom Walker has a strong admiration that he shows through his unusual melancholic versions of "Hard Time Killing Floor" and "Special Rider Blues".

The album closes with two delicate Walker's creations : the instrumental folk "Leon's Little Girl" and the beautifully moving country ballad "The Secret". When this marvelous album ends and silence suddenly leaves you with a sad feeling of loss, the only way to regain a joyful mood is to play it again. ■

(1) https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/03/toby-walker-shake-shake-mama-2011.html

Toby Walker Web site : https://www.littletobywalker.com

Videos

Lots of links to live Walker's full shows were already proposed on this blog on the page mentioned above, I invite you to visit them, if you haven't already.

Following are the only live performances of songs from the album available on YT.

● "Big Meat Shakin' On The Bone" : https://youtu.be/ZiR_LHk-wKk

● "Better Luck Next Time" :
→ https://youtu.be/tbQq0-iF2d4
→ https://youtu.be/epb8mfVDH5M

● "Hey Good Lookin'" : https://youtu.be/-KdtxGds20M

● "Central Islip Jail Blues" :
→ https://youtu.be/dhnXbARbw5s
→ https://youtu.be/-LFNoX1B2o4
→ https://youtu.be/8kOSHXcvufY

● "Bootlegger's Blues" : https://youtu.be/qTYE3VhCBP8

● "Mind Your Own Business" : https://youtu.be/_f6lusq-b7k

● "Generosity Rag" :
→ https://youtu.be/sXTmo7LLOeY
→ https://youtu.be/BNP9qohV0ps

● "Special Rider Blues" : https://youtu.be/X6uqCUgWy8s

● "Leon's Little Girl" : https://youtu.be/gsPNruTbrJs

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May 04, 2022

Adam Schultz - Soulful Distancing (2021)

► The album

Cool funky first shot

Is it young Schultz first album or is it Spady's new one ? Should it have been titled as "from Clarence Spady and/with Adam Schultz" or the opposite ? These questions are not simple rhetoric : Spady has been Schultz's mentor for several years, taking him on tour with him, leaving the guitar to him on three tracks of his own last album "Surrender" (2021) while working at the same period on Schultz' debut one. He is more than a simple guest on his protege's first opus : though he didn't write a single track, he co-produced it with Doug Schultz, Adam's father, plays second guitar all along and sings on six tracks, while Schultz doesn't sing one single word, concentrating on his guitar work.

We have presented Clarence Spady previously (1), so let's talk a bit about Schultz. On his official Web site, he is presented as "a jazz and blues guitarist and composer". He could and should have added "funk". Born in 2002, he studied for six years in a New York high school that was offering an outstanding music studies program. At 14 he was remarked by Spady who took him under his wing. Spady recalls : “The kid could really play and had the whole package. I felt like I was listening to myself when I was 15. One night at a gig, Douglas Schultz approached me and asked if I would give his 14 year old a lesson. I ended up giving Adam a lesson and was so impressed I invited him to sit in with me that night at Terra Blues in New York City.”

The funky-jazzy soul sound of the album is totally in Spady's style, and Schultz guitar playing fits perfectly in. And as a song composer, he certainly has a gift too as proved by his original compositions, most of them funky soul numbers with cool laid back guitar : the mellow "Good Conversation", the swinging funky R'n'B "Harlem Tonight" and "Have Some Faith" (co signed by Aviva Verbitsky), the excellent "Cure For The Blues", and "Toxic Medicine", the least convincing one to my taste.

Spady (left) & Schultz (masked)

The remaining tracks are six revisits of songs popularized by such renowned artists as Johnny "Guitar" Watson (the pounding "A Real Mother For Ya"), Louis Jordan ("Early in The Mornin'", a swinging blues with sax and choir), Little Walter ("Who (Who Told You)", enlightened by Scott Brown piano and Schultz solo), Tyrone Davis (the excellent melancholy soul ballad "Can I Change My Mind"), Otis Rush ("Cut You Loose", a song written by Mel London, totally transformed into an organ driven piece of funk, featuring a great but short guitar solo from Schultz), and Howlin’ Wolf (".44 Blues", a Roosevelt Sykes piece, transformed by Schultz guitar hypnotic riff).

These tracks have all been revisited in a contemporary mix of cool bluesy, funky and jazzy swinging style, with the help of long experienced singers (let's salute Michael Angelo's vocals) and musicians from different soul, blues and jazz horizons (like the excellent Robert O'Connell on B3 organ). Including Spady on guitar, they build solid foundations on which Schultz can express himself on guitar. Fortunately the young guitarist (he was 17 or just 18 at the time of the first recording sessions) didn't fall in the guitar-slinger trap of over-technical demonstration and keeps it in total cool control. Smartly, he stays humbly at the service of the songs, sometimes amazingly discreet and even shy, an instrumentist conscious of his skills who already has not much to prove. ■

(1) About Clarence Spady's 2008 album "Just Between Us" :
 → https://jellyrollbaker.blogspot.com/2019/03/clarence-spady-just-between-us.html
→ https://onurblues.blogspot.com/search/label/Clarence%20Spady

Interview

● On Blues.Gr, June 2021 : https://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/q-a-with-nyc-based-adam-schultz-focuses-on-jazz-and-blues-guitar-

Videos

Spady & Schultz

● Most of the videos of Adam Schultz, alone or with Spady, are available either on his Web site and YT channel, or on his father Douglas Schultz YT channel :

→ https://www.adamschultzmusic.com/videos

→ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfCJtDKYcz6Rnolb68fX1rQ/videos

→ https://www.youtube.com/user/2dschultz/playlists

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April 30, 2022

Jelly Roll Kings - Off Yonder Wall (1971/1997)

► The album

Princes of the electric Delta blues

Arkansas wins 2 to 1 against Mississippi with this amazing album by an amazing trio ! Frost and Carr were born in Arkansas, Johnson being the sole Mississippian by birth. But all three have the soul of the Delta in their music even if the album was recorded in Louisiana. A nice little geographical trip around the Golden Triangle of the blues ! (see map below)

Carr was born Samuel Lee McCollum in 1926 and actually was the natural son of Robert Lee McCollum better known as bluesman Robert Nighthawk. He was adopted as a baby by the Carr family from Arkansas, in this other Delta-like fertile plain just across the Mississippi river on the west bank.

Frank Frost

Frank Otis Frost was born in 1936 or 1938 probably in Patterson, in north-east Arkansas, but left at age 15 for St Louis where a few years later he met and joined Carr and Nighthawk, touring with them as guitarist, them joining Sonny Boy Williamson II band for several years, learning to play harmonica with the boss. Later he rejoined Carr and they played together until the early 1960s.

Jack N. Johnson known as "Big Jack" Johnson was born in 1939 or 1940 in Lambert, Mississippi, some 20 km east of Clarksdale. He started to play music with his father Ellis Johnson who was a cotton sharecropper, and later with different local musicians, adopting the electric guitar in his late teens. He was also nicknamed "The Oil Man", because of his day job as a truck driver for Shell Oil, and later played with a band baptized The Oilers.

Big Jack Johnson

Johnson met Frost and Carr, who had been playing together for several years, in Clarksdale in 1962. The three musicians formed a trio band. Here things get a bit obscure : some information state that this band was baptized the Jelly Roll Kings from the beginning; others say the band's name was the Night Hawks (nothing to do with Jimmy Thackery's ex-band), and that it was Michael Frank, founder of Earwig Music Records, who invited them to record as the Jelly Roll Kings in 1979. The problem is that "Off Yonder Wall" was recorded at Christmas 1970 and originally released the following year under the name Jelly Roll Kings by the small independent label Ahura Mazda Records !

Nevertheless, Night Hawks or Jelly Roll Kings, this is a great album featuring some jewels that shouldn't be missed : the very personal cover of Crudup's "That's Alright Mama" (where did Johnson get such a guitar sound ?!); the hilarious "Have Mercy Baby" where the outstanding instrument is Johnson's ( ?) mad crying bursts; and the two deadly rolling boogies "Baby Please Don't Go" totally transformed by the incredible hypnotic shuffle rhythm of Frost on his organ and Johnson slide style, and "I'm A Big Boy Now", a killing piece of pure Hill Country style where Johnson lets his guitar get mad, seconded by the obscure Terry Jackson on additional guitar.

The other tracks are not bad either ! Johnson's incredible guitar sound, Frost amazing organ playing and Carr's clockwork drum beat show that these three knew all the tricks of their trade and were able to do anything they wanted with their instruments.

Sam Carr

Steve Leggett described perfectly their musical style on AllMusic , observing that their "music remained the same stripped-down, no-frills version of juke joint blues that reimported the Chicago blues format back to the Delta and gave it a swampy spin".

Maybe were they Jelly Roll Kings, but most of all they were princes of electric Delta country blues, setting a path for many bluesmen to come. I use the past tense because all three have disappeared, but fortunately not before each put out interesting post-JRK albums : Frost died in 1999, Carr in 2009, and Johnson in 2011. ■

Some Jelly Roll (Kings or not) albums (audio)

● Frank Frost  - Jelly Roll Blues (1991) : https://youtu.be/MYqqWOljxZ0
→ 01. My back scratcher. 02. Never live me at home. 03. Harpin' on it. 04. Things you do. 05. Feel good babe. 06. Pocket full of money. 07. Ride with your daddy tonight. 08. Got my mojo working. 09. Harp and soul. 10. Didn't mean no harm. 11. Pretty baby. 12. Five long years. 13. Janie on my mind.

● Jelly Roll Kings - Rockin' the Juke Joint Down (1993) : https://youtu.be/E6BFlqd75Ew
→ Frank Frost : harmonica, organ, piano, vocals on #1, 4, 6, 7, 10 & 14.Big Jack Johnson : guitar vocals on #2, 8, 10 & 12). Sam Carr : drums.
Time code: 0:00 I Didn't Know, 3:56 Road Of Love, 8:26 Soul Love, 11:30 Mighty Long Time, 15:28 Honeydrippin' Boogie, 20:13 Something On Your Mind, 24:44 Jelly Roll King, 27:01 Catfish Blues, 30:52 Cleo's Back, 35:26 Slop Jar Blues, 37:39 Jelly Roll Stroll, 40:03 Have Mercy Baby, 44:10 Sunshine Twist (You Are My Sunshine), 46:30 Just A Dream (Just A Feeling), 51:37 Burnt Biscuits.

● Frank Frost & Sam Carr - The Jelly Roll Kings (1999) : https://youtu.be/b0Q5xZZih9I
→ Frank Frost  : lead vocal, harp, piano. Sam Carr : drums, lead vocal. Fred James : guitar, bass.
01. Lets Go Out Tonight 3:02 - 02. It's Cold Outdoors 4:07 - 03. Jelly Roll Kings 2:35 - 04. Love I Have Is True 3:01 - 05. Helena Hop 3:22 - 06. Sittin' On Daddy's Knee 4:41 - 07. You Took All My Dough 2:51 - 08. Baby Please 4:39 - 09. Mess Around 4:07 - 10. Will It Be You 4:28 - 11. Owl Head Woman 3:45 - 12. Done With Me 2:16

● Frank Frost & Sam Carr - The Last Of The Jelly Roll Kings (2007) : https://youtu.be/lxo1bdTWSNM
01. Better Take It Slow 3:12, 02. Hey Baby 5:13, 03. Keep Things Right 3:16, 04. Done With You 3:20, 05. Owl Head Woman Part 2 3:53, 06. Don't Do That 5:32, 07. Jelly Roll King 2:37, 08. Rock Me Baby 2:57, 09. Come Here Baby 2:34, 10. St. Louis Serenade 3:13, 11. How Many Times 5:14, 12. Black Cat Bone 3:08, 13. Midnight Prowler 3:55, 14. King Biscuit Blues 5:39, 15. Arkansas Shuffle 3:21.
This album is a false new one: it comprises the remaining alternate and out-takes (#1 to 10) from the 1997 sessions, originally released as The Jelly Roll Kings in 1999, and a few live tracks (#11 to 15) from the 1993 King Biscuit Blues Festival.

Live videos

► Terry "Big T" Williams talks about Sam Carr, 2020 : https://youtu.be/Js-voZgvTlw

► Jelly Roll Kings

● Live at Margaret's Blue Diamonds Lounge, Clarksdale (on a Spanish speaking TV), 1991 : https://youtu.be/U0_BmHd7QQA (from 39:30 to 1 :40 :00)
● At the King Biscuit Blues Festival, Helena (Arkansas) :
→ 1 : https://youtu.be/BSu7madedco
→ 2 : https://youtu.be/XBEMJmMOvAU

► Big Jack Johnson
● "Catfish Blues" : https://youtu.be/Hp0el4AjQro or https://youtu.be/FqmduLKdrYw
● "Daddy, When is Mama Comin' Home" : https://youtu.be/23JfvNrAGK0 or https://youtu.be/OjCdaGQJwoU
● At Buddy Guy Legend's, 1997 : https://youtu.be/7wuwEMhMtAI
● In Baltimore, 1997 : https://youtu.be/XkR-7wGV4V4
● At the Torrita Blues Fest., Torrita di Siena (Italy), 1998 : https://youtu.be/0CzMcac3tD4
● Big Jack Johnson and the Oilers at the Suoni dal Mondo Fest. (Italy), 1999 : https://youtu.be/p0EsIdO6c1o
● At the Curry Ranch, Venice (Florida), 1999 : https://youtu.be/m2D0vsqKI3E
● Big Jack Johnson and The Oilers (Christopher Dean : guitar /vocals - Maury "Hooter" Saslaff : bass - Chet Woodward : drums - Dick Lourie : sax) at The Big Easy, Portland (Maine), 1997 : https://youtu.be/TcLPrHenWG8
● Big Jack Johnson and The Oilers (Christopher Dean : guitar/vocals, Hooter Saslaff : bass, Dale Wise : drums), Youngstown (Ohio), 1998 : https://youtu.be/eABoo3hIak0
● Accepting a new Gibson 335 from Morgan Freeman at the Red's Lounge Juke Joint, Clarksdale : https://youtu.be/IsfzbPi3GLE & https://youtu.be/1nqXO4263HQ
● In Lancaster (Pennsylvania), 2008 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/oN3LuVjUuA0
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/zIVqsXH4iJk

► Frank Frost and/or Sam Carr

Sam Carr

● Frank Frost & Sam Carr at the King Biscuit Blues Fest., 1995 :
→ 1995 : https://youtu.be/mIIXJtYSvoc
→ Date unknown : https://youtu.be/n9z7f-KDd-g or https://youtu.be/CXqxPYwByS4

● Frank Frost, Sam Carr & T-Model Ford, Arkansas State University, 1995 : https://youtu.be/gB4T-6Upbd0

Frank Frost

● Frank Frost at the Chicago Blues Festival, 1997 :
→ 1 : https://youtu.be/BlxSqH2Z-Vg
→ 2 : https://youtu.be/XsuQAg9MtSw

The Golden Triangle of the blues

Frank Frost's grave

___________________________________________________

April 28, 2022

Boo Boo Davis - East St Louis (1999)

► The album

Boo Boo... Boo Boo... boogie

Heavy pounding beat halfway between Delta, Memphis and Chicago blues, sometimes as hypnotic as Hill Country style, wild raw hoarse blues-shouter voice inherited from the cotton fields hollers which reminds Howlin' Wolf, here is Boo Boo Davis !

Born in 1943 in the Delta town of Drew, a few miles south of the sinister Parchman Farm penitentiary, in a cotton farming family, Davis started to bang on lard cans, too poor to afford a drum set. He rambled around the Delta playing in the family band led by his multi-instrumentist father, before moving north to St Louis when he was about twenty and making a name for himself there, playing drums in Doc Terry's band, then with Little Aaron, before setting up his own band with two of his brothers in 1972.

Davis had to wait to be 56 to record this album, his first. And as none is a prophet in his own land, it was recorded in Holland for a Dutch label but sounds as raw and powerful as a Saturday night show in an East St. Louis blues club which is exactly what Davis did every week-end for almost twenty years at Tabby’s Red Room, precisely in East St. Louis, with his brother as the Davis Brothers Band.

Davis' blues shake, rattle and roll like only a drummer can do : the rocking groove goes crescendo throughout the album, it's hot and irresistible, and what a voice the guy has ! A real old school blues shouter  who could easily overcome a mike failure and be heard clearly from the remote corner of a club over the ambient noise of stomping feet on the dance floor, customers' shouting and clinking bottles.

Davis sings his own material, except one song from Sam Cooke and one co-signed with Little Aaron, extremely well backed by a gang of not very famous but top musicians, except the great Arthur Williams on harmonica : the obscure but appealing Larry Griffin on guitar (hear him on "I Had A Dream" !), the excellent Bob Lohr on piano and the equally excellent Dutch organist Roel Spanjers, particularly good on "Ice Storm", and the solid Greg Edick who keeps a classic but heavy clockwork swing on bass.
Not a single one of these twelve tracks is of lower quality though a few are standing out. Leaning on the rhythmical foundations set by the bass and Davis' drums, illuminated by the piano-harmonica-guitar threesome and Davis incredible vocals, the show (though it's not a live album) starts with the solid boogie "Sad Thing" followed by the pounding "We're In Hell".

Then comes the excellent cover of Sam Cooke's "Somebody Have Mercy"; "Hard Times" sung with a Howlin' Wolfesque voice; the title song "East St Louis" shouted over the piano with harmonica and excellent guitar lines; the outstanding "Ice Storm", certainly the highlight of the album, with Davis incredible from-beyond-the-grave roaring voice and the superb organ work of Roel Spanjers; the seriously jumping boogie "Talkin' 'Bout My Dogs", another highlight, with Williams' great harmonica interventions; "Ain't Got No Problems", a heavy piano driven piece; the long "What Makes A Fool Fall In Love" again featuring nice piano and Willams' great harmonica style; "Walk That Walk" where Larry Griffin shows his skill on slide steel guitar; "I Had A Dream" dominated by Larry Griffin's guitar, definitely a very interesting musician, and Roel Spanjers' organ; and finally the rocking Hill Country-like boogie "Walk On Tall", the third highlight of this really exciting album.

The whole thing sounds as unsophisticated as it would in a smoky and booze smelling country juke-joint, as hot and grooving as a blues club band eager to see the people dance until exhaustion, as down-home and roots as the Mississippi Delta cotton pickers hollering songs. Absolutely great vintage blues on a great album ! ■

Unfortunately there isn't many interesting good quality videos of Boo Boo Davis live and none in US festivals or clubs neither showing him play drums. Most of the following ones are from his numerous shows across Europe and feature his band composed of Dutch musicians Jan Mittendorp (head of Black & Tan Records) on guitar and John Gerritse on drums.