Blues for Aficionados

Carrie Smith

CONFESSIN' THE BLUES

Evidence / Disques Black and Blue      1993

Notes: "I've been around this kind of music all my life," Carrie Smith told me one afternoon at her East Orange, New Jersey, home.  It's not new to me.  I was born in Georgia, but my family moved to Newark, New Jersey when I was about seven.  Sarah Vaughan lived two blocks down from me.  From my childhood, I was brought up in the church.  My mother could sing.  In fact, my whole family are good singers.  And my father, he's excellent!  He was a Baptist minister."

Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXMCV3WC_vw

Confessin' the Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu_lVDSBbu8

Country Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX2avnK2u0E

Mama (He treats your daughter mean)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q7ygACDFp4

Trouble In Mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdNgmFeKNI

Cheers

Big Bad Smitty

MEAN DISPOSITION

Genes    1991

Notes: Big Bad Smitty is 300 pounds of the most authentic Blues to emerge in many a year.  Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1940, Smitty first picked up a guitar at age ten, picking out Muddy waters' 'Still a Fool' and by his later teen years was playing out at Delta Jukes, fish fries and picnics in the Greenville area...By his thirties Smitty had travelled to St. Louis playing such North and East side clubs as The Club Caravan, Tubby's red Room and Sparggin's Hacienda Lounge where he still plays regularly.


Still a fool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF6Fbp2vYCc

How many more Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDwT8ARsTM0

Long ol' Lonesome Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d38HVjatMs

You don't Love Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oS5B-2M2bY

Cheers

Otis Spann

DOWN TO EARTH / THE BLUESWAY RECORDINGS

MCA    1995

Otis Spann was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. -- Wikipedia
Born: March 21, 1930, Jackson, MS
Died: April 24, 1970, Chicago, IL

My Home Is In The Delta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEVkVx6_Q7o

Down To Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFX_3MlgZN8

Chicago Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzkWhSvoqEg

I'm A Fool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oeh_wSmlek

Cheers

One long-time favorite is the debut album by Lou Ann Barton entitled Old Enough, released in 1982 on Asylum Records. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Sheffield, Alabama, produced by Jerry Wexler (Aretha, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Dylan, etc.) and Glenn Frey (?!). Musical accompaniment by The Swampers (whose members include the superlative drummer/bassist duo of Roger Hawkins and David Hood), The Muscle Shoals Horns, and Jimmie Vaughan (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)---with whom Lou Ann often tours.

Sitting right next to Old Enough on the LP shelf is Jump Children by Dave Bartholomew (I named my son after him, Dave’s surname). The recordings were made in New Orleans (no duh ;-) between 1950 and ’60, and released on Imperial Records. My copy is a 1983 pressing on Pathe Marconi.

Then there is Mose Allison Sings on Prestige Records. Blues and Jazz co-existed in Mose, but he was a favorite of a fair number of hipper Rockers. Look at some of the titles on this album: "The Seventh Son", "Eyesight To The Blind", "Don’t Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me", "Parchman Farm", "Don’t Get Around Much Anymore". Recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder.

Houston Stackhouse

CRYIN' WON'T HELP YOU

Genes   1994

Notes:  Houston Stackhouse never attained the position he rightly deserved among Bluesmen, probably because of the sparsity of his recordings.  Never a hard Delta musician, nor a composer of great note, he gleaned his repertoire from his fellow musician friends and relatives, and favorite records.

Born September 28, 1910 Wesson, Mississippi
Died September 23, 1980 (aged 69) Helena, Arkansas
wiki

Excellent Booklet with many stories of his life and career.

Kind Hearted Woman Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBdqWbIfJh8

Bricks In My Pillow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hWTGH-eVBk

My Babe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOIagfNUNzM

Cryin' won't Help You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FcG-4Ir9-0

Cheers