Living Chicago Blues (Volume 1)

Recently, I revisited one of my favorite blues anthology series that first appeared in the late 70's.  Living Chicago Blues was originally released by Alligator Records as two three-volume series in 1978 and 1980.  Of course, at that time, I was not really following the blues....that was a few years away yet.  When I did start following the blues in the mid-80's, I didn't have a record player, which was the only format Alligator offered.  However, a few years later, it became available on cassette and CD (in four volumes instead of six), so I snatched them up in cassette form and, later, CD.

Over the years, there have been several great collections covering the blues from the Windy City.  The first ones I heard were the three-volume Chicago!  The Blues!  Today!, on Vanguard Records (which we discussed here), the single volume Sweet Home Chicago (on Delmark Records, also discussed here).

I realize that a lot of people don't buy records so much anymore, or CDs, or any physical product where music is concerned.  That's really a shame because they miss out on so much.  One of the pleasures of buying a physical recording, which I still do frequently, is discovering a cool song that you might have otherwise missed.  That was more applicable when I was buying rock, pop, soul, and R&B because the single isn't always the best cut.  For the blues, it's almost essential to buy the whole album, especially these older set.  I think most older blues fans would agree, and these four volumes include a lot of great tracks that you might have missed otherwise.

When Volume 1 was released in 1978, new blues releases were not nearly as frequent as in previous years.  There were still a few labels, independent ones, that were occasionally releasing new product, but most blues artists were able to record overseas, making fine albums that eventually made it over to the states.  Alligator was one of the labels that was still releasing new albums as often as they could afford to, and when they released this volume, which featured FOUR different blues bands on one album, it was eagerly received by blues fans.

Jimmy Johnson

The first volume featured four established Chicago blues stars.  Jimmy Johnson was part of a musical family (brother Syl Johnson enjoyed a lengthy career in blues and soul and brother Mack Thompson served as bassist for Magic Sam) played guitar as a hobby for many years, but eventually moved to the blues, cutting a few singles in the early 70's and backing a number of Chicago artists, including Otis Rush on his Japan tour (appearing on Rush's So Many Roads - Live in Concert release).  

Johnson was approaching his 50th birthday when he cut these four sides, backed by Larry Burton on rhythm guitar, Carl Snyder on keyboards, Ike Anderson on bass, and Dino Alvarez on drums.  They were all covers, beginning with the Duke Records classic blues ballad "Your Turn To Cry," the Percy Mayfield standard "Serves Me Right To Suffer,"  Louis Jordan's jump blues "Ain't That Just Like A Woman," and the Memphis soul burner "Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home."

Johnson's musical talents were an even mix of blues and soul.  I first heard him on his Bar Room Preacher album (also from Alligator) and his guitar work was very distinctive and was complemented by his expressive vocals, which were a solid fit in the blues and soul genres.  Rock-solid support from the band helped get Volume 1 off to a fine start.

  

Johnson eventually signed with Delmark and released two excellent albums in 1979 and 1982  (1983's Bar Room Preacher was a reissue of a French release from the late 70's).  He recorded a couple of albums in the 90's, and a collaboration with brother Syl at the turn of the century.  At age 91, he released his final album, 2019's Every Day of Your Life on Delmark.  During the pandemic, he appeared regularly on Facebook, playing the blues from home and corresponding with his fans, before suffering a stroke and passing away in late January, 2022.

Eddie Shaw and Hubert Sumlin

Next on the roster was Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang.  Shaw inherited the Wolf Gang after his longtime boss, Howlin' Wolf passed away in 1976, but he'd been playing the saxophone since he was a teenager in Mississippi, playing with Ike Turner and landing with Muddy Waters' band in Chicago before switching to the Wolf's band, eventually serving as his bandleader.  He also played with Magic Sam (on Black Magic and the Delmark anthology Sweet Home Chicago), Otis Rush, and others.

Shaw and the Wolf Gang (Hubert Sumlin - guitar, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker - piano, Lafayette "Shorty" Gilbert - bass, Chico Chism - drums) rip through a five-song set.  Only Walker was not a member of the Wolf Gang while the Wolf was the leader, this session was his first with the band.  Four of the five songs were covers, Hound Dog Taylor's "It's Alright," Magic Sam's "Out of Bad Luck," Chick Willis' bawdy "Stoop Down Baby," and the Mississippi Sheiks' "Sittin' On Top of The World."  Shaw's own "My Baby's So Ugly" wraps up their exciting set.  Shaw's energetic sax is complemented perfectly by Sumlin's unique guitar work and it all reminds you in a way of their tenure with the Wolf.

 

It was rare for a Chicago blues band to be fronted by a sax player, but Shaw did just that for five decades, eventually bringing in his guitar-playing son, Vaan Shaw (his other son, Stan Shaw, is an actor of some renown), and making numerous raucous rocking recordings for Rooster Blues, Delmark, and Wolf Records before passing away in 2018. 

Left Hand Frank

I was not familiar with Left Hand Frank Craig prior to hearing him on this set.  He was a native of Mississippi (born in Greenville in 1936), but moved to Chicago as a teenager.  Like many left-handers, he played his guitar strung for a righty, but strapped it on upside down.  He got his first guitar at four and learned to play blues and country music from older musicians who sought out his mother to buy homemade whiskey

Craig played with several teenagers (guitarist Eddie King and bassist Willie Black) outside The Zanzibar and Vi's Club for tips when he was too young to play inside, but eventually graduated to backing many of the city's foremost blues artists, such as Willie Cobbs, Jimmy Rogers, Lee Jackson, Jimmy Dawkins, Boyd Gilmore, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Good Rockin' Charles, Hound Dog Taylor, and James Scott, Jr.

Craig worked as a manual laborer at a steel mill during the daylight hours, and played the blues at night.  He was able to record in 1960, playing bass behind Eddie King, and later behind Morris Pejoe, Little Eddie Newell, and Willie Williams.  In the 70's, he was still playing around Chicago when he appeared on this album, his first tunes as a front man, backed by Dimestore Fred and Pocketwatch Paul (his frequent collaborators around this time) on harmonica and rhythm guitar respectively, Bob Stroger on bass, and Odie Payne, Jr. on drums.

Craig penned two of his four songs - "Come Home, Darling" and "Blues Won't Let Me Be."  He also covered Mercy Dee Watson's "One Room Country Shack" and the Ray Sharpe classic "Linda Lu."  Craig's gritty, tough guitar playing was reminiscent of fellow former Mississippians/current (at the time) Chicagoans Magic Slim and Jimmy Rogers and he was also a strong vocalist as well.

Craig recorded a couple of additional albums after this set, a great live album recorded at the Knickerbocker Cafe in Westerly, RI in the late 70's and released on a French label (MCM), and a collaboration with Jimmy Rogers that appeared on JSP Records in England.  He moved to Los Angeles in the early 80's to live with his sister and fell into bad health, eventually passing away in 1992.  Both of his releases are worth seeking out.

Lurrie and Carey Bell

The final act on Volume 1 is Carey Bell's Blues Harp Band.  Bell was part of the second generation of Chicago harp masters, learning his craft from Little Walter, Big Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson II by listening to their records as a youth in Meridian, MS (he was born Carey Bell Harrington in Macon, MS) and later directly from them when he moved up north.  The cool thing about Bell was he took the distinctive sounds of each of those harp wizards and created his own unique sound from them.  

While in Meridian, he played in his godfather Lovie Lee's band and eventually traveled with Lee to Chicago.  He then learned from the harp masters in person and also learned to play bass from Hound Dog Taylor to enable him to get more work as a musician.  This worked out well for him as the harmonica was being de-emphasized in favor of the electric guitar, so he played bass for several bands, including Eddie Taylor and Royal Johnson, until the harmonica returned to the forefront in the late 60's.

He recorded with Earl Hooker in 1968 and  an album for Delmark in 1969 and played with Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon's bands in the early 70's, also recording a collaborative album with Big Walter Horton for Alligator in 1972 (the label's second release), and another effort for Bluesway Records.  His band on this four-song set included his 19-year-old son Lurrie Bell on guitar (more on him in a later volume), Bob Riedy on piano, Aron Burton on bass, and Odie Payne, Jr. on drums.

Bell's set list included a Willie Dixon song previously recorded by Little Walter ("Too Late"), "Laudromat Blues," a hit for Albert King written by Sandy Jones, Jr., and his own contributions "One Day" and "Woman In Trouble."  Bell was a robust vocalist, but his playing on the harmonica was breathtaking at time in their energy and depth, and the band's support is first rate, as well.

Bell continued to record for JSP, Blind Pig, Rooster Blues (with his son, Lurrie) and made multiple recordings for Alligator, including a pair of solo albums, an album where he teamed up with three other Chicago harp legends (Junior Wells, James Cotton, and Billy Branch), and an acoustic release with Lurrie, who has become one of the Windy City's finest guitarists.  He passed away in 2007, releasing a live set on Delmark that same year.

The first volume of Living Chicago Blues was a good one, giving several artists an opportunity for more exposure that worked out well for them.  The subsequent releases in the series would prove to bring other great, under-recorded artists to the forefront, giving rise to a real resurgence in "Genuine Houserockin' Music" of the Chicago variety.  We'll be looking at additional volumes in the near future.