The great Junior Parker sang, “You will feel like dying when you get these kind of blues.” But he sang it over an infectious rhythm, to an upbeat melody. Such is the ability of the blues to interweave sad and happy. It’s not monochromatic; it traverses the gamut of human emotion.
I’ll be honest: A lot of mediocre blues passes my desk, by acts that mummify the idiom rather than inject it with life. So it’s heartening to find three new releases that hold it to a high standard and a reissue of a classic by a true blues icon.
Tracy Nelson’s powerful voice was evidenced on her 1965 debut, Deep Are The Roots, which mixed folk with classic blues songs by Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. It featured Charlie Musselwhite’s harmonica, and he’s back among the accompanists on Nelson’s latest, Life Don’t Miss Nobody.
The eclectic set, embracing Allen Toussaint, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, and more, is Nelson’s best effort in years. Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Your Funeral and My Trial” is a duet with Jontavious Willis, who also plays resonator slide. Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Strange Things Happening Every Day” features great distorted guitar by Mike Henderson. Roger Alan Nichols, who co-produced the album with Nelson, supplies guitar on several tracks, and Larry Chaney brought out acoustic and cuatro for the Latin-flavored original title song. Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times” receives a band treatment and a stirring solo version with Nelson on acoustic 12-string.
Stuff I’ve Been Through by Alabama Mike is the hippest soul-styled blues disc to come along in a good while. Not surprisingly, it was recorded at San Jose’s Greaseland Studios with Kid Andersen at the helm. The 11 tunes, ranging from the impassioned title cut to the humorous “Fat Shame,” were penned by “Alabama” Michael Benjamin himself, and onboard is what’s becoming a Greaseland stable – Andersen sharing guitar duties with Rusty Zinn, Bobby Young, and Anson Funderburgh (who adds a penetrating solo to “King Cock”), Jerry Jemmott handling bass, and drummer D’Mar Martin. It’s another impressive release by the nonprofit Little Village label, founded by Jim Pugh, who’s at his usual keyboard seat.
From boyhood in Gary, Indiana, to gospel quartets and blues clubs in Chicago, to jams at Dan Electro’s in Houston, Leonard “Lowdown” Brown has carved a musical path. As he sings over a funky beat in the title song of Blues Is Calling Me, “I’m headed wherever the blues takes me; that’s my destiny.”
Part of the Music Maker Foundation’s formidable roster, he delivers “You Gotta Move” in a smooth, facile style, backed by jazzy, warm-toned guitar fills. Horn stabs punctuate “Lowdown’s Blues,” a medium-tempo shuffle displaying his guitar stance – authoritative, but unhurried. “Find a Bridge” features muted guitar bursts over an infectious zydeco rhythm, while the swinging groove of “French Quarter Woman” is reminiscent of Wilson Pickett.
When John Lee Hooker half-speaks/half-sings, “I had a friend one time; at least I thought I did,” it can raise your hackles, convinced that “I’m Bad Like Jesse James” is more warning than boast. The inspiration for blues-rock acts from Canned Heat to Van Morrison, George Thorogood, and the Animals started his recording career with “Boogie Chillun” – #1 on the R&B chart in 1948. He later cut collaborations with Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, and Los Lobos.
Alone: Live At Hunter College 1976 contains his entire concert, sans backup band – just rawboned guitar and his ever-present foot-stomping. Hooker standards “Boom Boom,” “Crawlin’ King Snake,” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” are featured along with lesser-known originals “Dark Room” and “Trying To Survive” – the rare solo concept proving a winner.
Right Place, Right Time
I got to see Tracy Nelson and John Lee Hooker perform several times in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Nelson often played the basement rathskeller of Larry Blake’s restaurant in Berkeley. She was friends with the Rat Band, an all-star group consisting of past and future members of Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Tower of Power, Robert Cray, and Santana. Led by guitarist Tim Kaihatsu, they excelled in backing any roots artist or holding down the fort by themselves. Tim doubled as booking agent, and one of his crowning achievements was booking Etta James with Nelson opening. I thought the sweaty ceiling would come down.
Hooker gigged steadily, leading a crack band that featured dual guitars of Luther Tucker and Benny Rowe, with later ensembles held down by guitarists Michael Osborn or Ron Thompson. “Boogie Chillen” was always the highlight, but occasionally he’d slow things down with the band barely audible and do a moody piece like “The Waterfront” to pin-drop silence from the crowd.
Hooker enjoyed his later years in the San Francisco area, where he was rightly treated like royalty. He received four Grammy awards in addition to a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, a year before he died at 83. There will never be another like him.
© 2023 Dan Forte; all rights reserved by the author.
This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
