VA - Louisiana Blues 1970

Size: 111,3 MB
Time: 47:31
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1970/1997
Styles: Louisiana Blues
Art: Front & Back

01. Henry Gray - The Blues Won't Let Me Take My Rest (4:11)
02. Henry Gray - Lucky, Lucky Man (1:53)
03. Guitar Kelley - If I Ever Get Back Home (4:47)
04. Guitar Kelley - Talk To Me Baby (3:53)
05. Guitar Kelley - I Got A Funny Feeling (5:00)
06. Whispering Smith - I Love You Baby (3:51)
07. Silas Hogan - Run Around Blues (5:07)
08. Silas Hogan - Rats And Roaches In My Kitchen (3:12)
09. Henry Gray - Cold Chills (3:09)
10. Clarence Edwards - Hear That Rumbling (2:52)
11. Clarence Edwards - How Many More Years (3:30)
12. Whispering Smith - On The Dark Road Crying (5:59)

This CD is part of Arhoolie's special "Mid-Price Series." This takes a closer look at the Baton Rouge area that gave us country blues artists like Robert Pete Williams, Butch Cage, Hogman Maxey and more. Here are the most recent bluesmen in that tradition, going back at most thirty years. The additions of electricity and drums give the music a comparatively modern feel. But, the voice is still the same as that of the ancient jukejoint entertainer. Lightning Slim probably let the first wave of this new central Louisiana sound. The artists covered on this largely remote and sad sounding twelve-track disc are Henry Gray, Guitar Kelley (his recording debut), Whipsering Smith, Silas Hogan and Clarence Edwards. Comprehensive artists fit the music specifically and generally into the deep south blues scheme. ~by Tom Schulte

Louisiana Blues

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Lightnin' Slim/Whispering Smith - High & Low Down/Over Easy

Size: 149,4 MB
Time: 64:51
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1995
Styles: Louisiana Blues
Art: Full

01. Freddie North - Spoken Intro (0:21)
02. Lightnin' Slim - Rooster Blues (2:41)
03. Lightnin' Slim - Things I Used To Do (3:12)
04. Lightnin' Slim - Bad Luck Blues (2:32)
05. Lightnin' Slim - My Babe (2:25)
06. Lightnin' Slim - G.I. Blues (2:34)
07. Lightnin' Slim - Oh Baby (2:56)
08. Lightnin' Slim - That's All Right (2:57)
09. Lightnin' Slim - Can't Hold Out Much Longer (3:42)
10. Lightnin' Slim - Good Morning Heartaches (3:00)
11. Lightnin' Slim - Hoo Doo Blues (3:17)
12. Whispering Smith - What In The World's Come Over You (3:07)
13. Whispering Smith - Mojo Hand (3:17)
14. Whispering Smith - The Way You Treat Me (3:05)
15. Whispering Smith - I Don't Need No Woman (2:57)
16. Whispering Smith - Everybody Needs Love (3:30)
17. Whispering Smith - I Know I've Got A Sure Thing (Smith's Jam) (2:56)
18. Whispering Smith - Why Am I Treated So Bad? (2:55)
19. Whispering Smith - Rock Me Baby (3:01)
20. Whispering Smith - Married Man (2:37)
21. Whispering Smith - I Know You Don't Love Me (2:48)
22. Whispering Smith - It's All Over (3:05)
23. Whispering Smith - You Want To Do It Again (1:44)

For a (some would say thankfully) short period at the beginning of the 1970s, there was a vogue for dressing up the blues with the trappings of the progressive rock and soul of the day. The down-home qualitities of singers like Muddy Waters were swamped by wah-wah guitars, electric pianos, busy rock drumming and overblown horn sections. Muddy's Electric Mud remains a disastrous episode, but other projects often produced more interesting results. The final Excello albums by Lightnin' Slim and Whispering Smith featured additional horn sections (more for the former, less for the latter) but the sheer grit and down-home bluesiness of the singers' vocals, more than compensated for the more adventurous instrumental stylings. Slim's album was produced by Jerry 'Swamp Dogg' Williams and comes with the usual quota of Swamp Dogg quirkiness. Smith's album is far more rootsy, a Louisiana blues affair, with only minor intrusions from the horns. Slim and Smith toured together frequently in their final years and these two 'contemporary' albums fit together as well as the two artists did on stage.

High & Low Down/Over Easy

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