Louisiana Red - 2 albums: Driftin' / When My Mama Was Living

Album: Driftin'
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:46
Size: 136.8 MB
Styles: Louisiana blues
Year: 2001
Art: Front

[5:40] 1. Driftin'
[5:44] 2. Hard Hard Time
[5:26] 3. Bring Me Some Water
[3:19] 4. Leaving Grandma
[1:56] 5. In The Garden
[5:03] 6. The Day I Met B.B. King
[4:00] 7. Keep Your Hands On The Plow
[3:34] 8. Teddy Bear Cootie In The Gum Stump
[5:31] 9. Getting Weaker Day By Day
[2:18] 10. I Met Lightnin' Hopkins
[5:25] 11. Chankity Chank Chank
[2:37] 12. Baby, You Gonna Miss Me
[3:52] 13. Powder Room Blues
[3:03] 14. Train Station Blues
[2:11] 15. He Will See You Through

Louisiana Red is a versatile performer capable of playing standard electric blues, interacting with his guitar à la Muddy Waters ("Hard Hard Time" is a good example), paying tribute to both B.B. King and Lightnin' Hopkins, or singing a religious hymn ("He Will See You Through"). Whether playing solo or performing as part of a fine blues quintet that includes Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on harmonica, Louisiana Red shows on this CD that he is one of the more significant blues stylists of the early 21st century, performing in each setting and idiom with equal sincerity and skill. Well worth exploring. ~Scott Yanow

Driftin' mc
Driftin' zippy

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Album: When My Mama Was Living
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 65:48
Size: 150.6 MB
Styles: Louisiana blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[4:51] 1. Walk All Over Georgia
[3:54] 2. King Bee
[4:56] 3. When My Mama Was Living
[2:05] 4. Caught Your Man And Gone
[3:38] 5. Bad Case Of The Blues
[3:23] 6. Little Suzie Jane
[3:45] 7. Got A Girl With A Dog Won't Bark
[5:09] 8. Cold White Sheet
[2:51] 9. Going Down To Georgia
[2:44] 10. You Got To Move
[2:55] 11. Going Home
[3:32] 12. I'll Be Glad When You Are Dead You Rascal You
[3:35] 13. Cold Feeling
[5:29] 14. John Henry
[4:13] 15. Stole From Me
[8:38] 16. Joanne

Were he alive today, Louisiana Red wouldn't stand a chance on one of the wretched singing competitions that pollute the television landscape. That's both an indictment of contemporary music culture and a testament to the gutbucket power and soulful integrity of the late, great bluesman. Red lived a fascinating and at times harrowing life that informs every bar of every song he wrote and performed. He lost his parents when he was a child, was raised in a succession of orphanages, learned to play guitar from a street musician, and lived the hardscrabble life of a traveling musician while in his teens. He made his first recording in 1949, hung out with legends like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, and eventually carved out a prolific career that resulted in more than 50 albums. In honor of Red's passing, Labor Records has released this CD of 16 previously unreleased tracks that capture him at his peak. Recorded in the mid-1970s, half are originals written by Red and Kent Cooper; half are standards that Red stamps with his inimitable style: stark, haunted and filled with a lifetime's pain and disappointment. Yet one can also hear a survivor's strength and spirit in tunes like "Walk All Over Georgia" and "King Bee" that make listening to Red a transformative, uplifting experience. Stripped down to the essentials -- vocals, guitar, harmonica -- this is blues in the raw, as pungent and powerful as a shot of redeye. ~Dean R. Brierly

When My Mama Was Living mc
When My Mama Was Living zippy

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