Friday Blues Picks (7/10/26)

Here are a couple of upcoming releases that blues fans should have on their radar.....some cool releases to battle this serious summer heat.

One of the earliest blues artists that I was aware of was Taj Mahal.  His records were always prominent in record stores and I can remember seeing him on television when I was in high school before I even got into the blues.  Over the years, Mahal has incorporated reggae, jazz, and soul into his repertoire and he does all of them exceedingly well.  He's never really stood still as far as his music goes......always trying out new sounds or improving on what he's already mastered.

During the late 90's and early 2000's, Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band won back-to-back Grammys for two excellent albums (1998's Senor Blues and 2000's Shoutin' in Key).  The PBB has toured frequently with Mahal since then, but are also a working band by themselves, having released several great albums of their own.  Mahal recently released Time (Resonatin' Records/Thirty Tiger), which is taken from sessions recorded back in 2010 with the PBB, other than keyboardist Mike Finnigan who is replaced by Jon Cleary and Mick Weaver on piano and organ respectively.

If you're familiar with Taj Mahal's music, you know it will be a mix of blues, soul, reggae, jazz, and anything else that comes to mind during the recording process.  There are some really good songs among these ten tracks....a few of my favorites are Mahal's reworking of Bob Marley's "Talkin' Blues," which features co-lead vocals from Ziggy Marley, Bob's son, Mahal's cover of "Ask Me 'Bout Nothing (But The Blues)," the Bobby "Blue" Bland classic, and the wonderful title track, written by Bill Withers, but never recorded.....Mahal and producer Steve Berkowitz (who worked with Withers and brought the song to the session) got permission from Withers' widow to include it on the album.  I'm not sure why Withers never recorded the song, or for that matter why Taj Mahal never released Time until now, but I'm sure glad both things happened and blues fans will be, too.

Sherri Harding is a Canadian soul singer and she recorded her previous album, A Million Pieces, in Muscle Shoals.  That effort was successful, so for her latest album, Storyland (Instant Replay Music), she brought some of Muscle Shoals to Ottawa in the form of guitarist Kevin Holley, who backed Little Richard and the Amazing Rhythm Aces, among others.  She also used the Muscle Shoals horns, who recorded their tracks in Muscle Shoals.  

All this being said, it wouldn't mean a thing if Ms. Harding didn't have the voice to put in front of the music, and she certainly has that.  It's not the over-the-top variety vocal style that is sometimes prevalent in modern blues.  She sings with a easy, confident assurance and listeners actually hear and understand the vocals.  I really enjoyed her delivery on all of these songs, which were written by Richard Cooper, who also produced.

The songs are a mix of soul, blues, a bit of jazz, and R&B thrown in.  She sound great on all of them, but she really has a way with the blues and soul-flavored tracks are standout, particularly "Down In The Shoals," which really captures the swamp, soulful essence of the Muscle Shoals sound.  This is a great release with fine work from Harding and the entire band.  

We'll look at a couple more new releases next week but meanwhile, another cool release that I recently found in the "Blast from the Past" department is a collection of the early recordings of Earl Hooker.  We profiled Hooker many years ago on the blog, but all you need to know is that Hooker was one of the finest guitarist to ever play the blues.  His slide guitar was just amazing and he was incredibly creative as a player with a clear and distinctive style, comfortable playing blues, jazz, country, and even rockabilly.  He wasn't as confident with his singing as he was with his playing, so he often backed other singers in Chicago, but he was a decent vocalist himself.  Hooker also battled tuberculosis for most of his life, which caused gaps in his playing career and eventually took his life at the too-young age of 40 in 1970.

A couple of years ago, the UK label Jasmine Records released The Electrifying Blues Guitar of Earl Hooker:  Ride Hooker Ride 1953 - 1962.  Hooker's recordings for Chief, Profile, and Age Records have been pretty well-documented over the years (see Paula Records' Blue Guitar) and they are often considered his best work.  Most of them are included in this set, but the real treat with this set is the inclusion of 17 of his earliest recordings, several of which have never been issued on CD prior to this album.  That includes ten tracks Hooker recorded for Sun Records with Pinetop Perkins on piano, Willie Nix on drums, and Boyd Gilmore on one vocal in 1953.

The sound on these recordings is actually better than the Chief, Profile, and Age tracks that are on the Paula release and Hooker is backed by a pretty impressive group of performers including Perkins, Nix, and Gilmore, Junior Wells, Johnny "Big Moose' Walker, A.C. Reed, Lafayette Leake, Fred Below, and Reggie Boyd.  The instrumentals are just dynamite and find Hooker playing blues, country, and rockabilly.  Two of the noteworthy previously unissued tracks are "Steel Guitar Rag" and "The Huckabuck," and it makes you wonder what in the world Sam Phillips was thinking when he put these songs on the shelf.  If you are a fan of blues guitar, then you need some Earl Hooker in your collection and this is a great place to get started.  

Friday Blues Picks (Looking Back)

A lot of music lovers may not be familiar with the name Lowell Fulson, but the Oklahoma native was one of the most important artists on the post-war blues scene.  He was a masterful songwriter, a warm, engaging vocalist, and a powerful guitarist.  He made his mark on the West Coast blues scene after ending up in Oakland after serving in the Navy during World War II.  He had played as a youth in Oklahoma with Texas Alexander before moving to Texas, where he worked as a cook and played weekend dances.  When he went to the West Coast he, like many other guitarists, fell under the spell of T-Bone Walker.

His first hit, for Swing Time Records, was 1948's "Three O'Clock in the Morning Blues," later reworked by B.B. King as "Three O'Clock Blues."   He also wrote a few more tunes that are recognized as blues standards, such as "Everyday I Have The Blues," "Blue Shadows," Lonesome Christmas," and "Sinner's Prayer," which Ray Charles made a hit.  He also recorded for the Chess Records subsidiary Checker Records, with several more hits, including "Reconsider Baby," which became a #1 pop hit for Elvis Presley in 1960.  Other tunes for Checker included "Hung Down Head," "Loving You," "Low Society," and "That's All Right."

In the mid 60's, Fulson recorded for Kent Records, as Lowell Fulsom.  While at Kent, he recorded some of his biggest hits, including "Black Nights" and "Tramp," which was later covered by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas (both versions were big hits).  These tunes enabled Fulson, or Fulsom, to move over to the soul circuit.  In 1970, he signed with Jewel and recorded a blues-rock album with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

Fulson continued to recorded sporadically through the 70's and 80's for various labels, now reverting back to his real last name of Fulson.  He recorded a solid set for Rounder in 1988, It's a Good Day, and continued to write some great songs, including "Room With a View (of the Blues)," which he co-wrote with Billy Vera.  It was recorded several times in the late 80's, my favorite version being Johnny Adams' from his album of the same title.  

However, it's Fulson's later release on Rounder's Bullseye Blues imprint that I wanted to discuss this week, Hold On.  While I enjoyed his previous release for Rounder, I have to admit that this album really hit me pretty hard.

First, a bit about the Bullseye Blues label.....it was founded in 1991 as a partnership with Rounder Records and Ron Levy, who served as producer and played keyboards on most of the albums released.  The first releases that I saw for the label were from Charles Brown, Champion Jack Dupree, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson and I snatched them all up, and many more to follow.  

Mr. Levy certainly knew his way around the  blues, having played for many years in B.B. King's band (Mr. Levy sat down with us for Ten Questions many years ago, check it out here) and, thanks in no small part to his efforts, the label's output was first-rate from its beginnings until the label shut down in the late 90's.

Jimmy McCracklin

Fulson wrote eight of the eleven tracks on Hold On, and they are all winners.  He's joined on these tracks by another blues legend, his longtime friend Jimmy McCracklin.  McCracklin enjoyed success on the pop and R&B charts in the 50's with his single "The Walk," which earned him an appearance on American Bandstand in 1957.  He also wrote "Just Got To Know," and co-wrote "Tramp" with Fulson.  He continued to record over the years and has a couple of Bullseye Blues releases of his own.  

McCracklin contributes a pair of songs to Hold On and plays piano throughout, while Levy plays organ and produced.  The horn section and rhythm section work is really what grabbed me on a lot of these tracks.  Dubbed the Bullseye Blues Horns, they are led by trumpeter Joe Campbell who did the arranging and Bobby Forte provides tenor sax solos.  South Central Rhythm does a wonderful job, adding a bit of tasty funk to the proceedings.

Fulson does a marvelous job on vocals, just as strong as they were during his peak period of the 50's and 60's, and his guitar work is, as always, tasteful and concise.  He always seems to know what to play where and it's never at the expense of the song.  I think that's another thing I like about Lowell Fulson.  His songwriting and musical arrangements don't stick to blues traditions either.  You might find yourself singing along with many of these after just a couple of listens.

Hold On won the BMA for Traditional Album of the Year in 1993.  Fulson recorded one more album with Bullseye Blues in 1995, Them Update Blues, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.  In the late 90's, he began battling health issues, among them diabetes, kidney disease, and congestive heart failure, and he passed away on March 7, 1999, at the age of 77.  McCracklin remained active well into the 2000's before passing away at the age of 91 in 2012.

If you're not familiar with Lowell Fulson, you can pretty much start at any period of his career and find quality releases.  His Chess recordings are standout and his 60's soul/R&B-oriented work is equally strong.  However, Hold On is an excellent, often-overlooked set in his catalog that will reward blues fans with some wonderful moments.

Friday Blues Picks (6/26/26)

Here are a few recent releases that are well worth any blues fan's time, so be sure to check them out.  If you're able, try to buy a physical copy of these artists' music whenever possible.  Most of them receive very little from the whole streaming process and if you're like me, you like the liner notes that come with the physical albums and it's just good to hold it in your hands.  I know some people like the streaming process and that's fine, too, so support these musicians any way that you can.

A couple of months ago, Dan Penn released his latest album, Smoke Filled Room (The Last Music Company).  It's a set of demos that Penn has recorded over the past few years, some of which were later recorded by other artists that you may recognize from their versions.....Irma Thomas, Joe Louis Walker, Dalton Reed, T. Graham Brown.... but truthfully nobody really sings a Dan Penn song as well as the man himself and he certainly delivers on these tunes.

The physical album also includes Penn's comments about each song, how they came about, etc....  Penn's collaborators on these tracks include Bucky Lindsey, Carson Whitsett, Gary Nicholson, Charlie Taylor, Swain Schaefer, and Bobby Emmons, most of whom provided musical support on these tracks as well.  There are also a couple of gospel tracks and a Christmas song that closes out the disc, but the rest of the tunes fit snugly in the blues, soul, and country genres, as many of Penn's works are apt to do.

Dan Penn is a musical treasure and it's great that he has been able to release several albums over the past few years after focusing on songwriting and production for so many years.  Back in May, Penn fell in his shop and broke his hip.  He was incapacitated on the floor for about 12 hours before he was found.  They performed successful surgery and he was released from rehab last weekend.  He's planning to play his August 1 show in Vernon, AL with Spooner Oldham and I plan to be there to see him.

Several years ago, I really enjoyed an album released by Chicago blues man Russ Green.  That album, City Soul, was one of the best blues albums of 2018.  Coming to the blues after working in the film industry, Green was influenced as a harmonica player by Sugar Blue and Billy Branch, and has played and toured with John Primer and Lurrie Bell.  He's also produced an album by Big Llou Johnson that won a Blues Music Award for Best New Artist, and has appeared on two albums from the  Chicago Blues Harmonica Project. 

Stone Cold (Overton Music) is Green's latest release and it includes ten original tunes that showcase his nimble harp playing and his soulful vocals.  I have to say that it's even better than his debut release.  It's chock full of Green's "Hendrixian" harp playing and his songwriting is even stronger this time around.  This is a powerful and energetic set of contemporary blues that mixes soul, rock, and even a bit of jazz on a few tracks with his harp playing.

Backed by guitarists Giles Corey and Vince Agwada and keyboardist Joe Munroe with a rock-solid rhythm section of Vic Jackson (bass) and Felix "D-Kat" Pollard (drums), Stone Cold is the second winner in a row for Russ Green, who is hopefully on his way to making some noise on the blues scene.

At first glance, Seth James looks more like a country music artist with the cowboy hat, but there's much more to the picture.   The Texas native, who also works as a cowboy, encompasses blues, soul, southern rock, R&B, and Americana with his musical attack.  A couple of years ago, he released a marvelous tribute album to Delbert McClinton, covering 11 of the legend's songs backed by producer, keyboardist, guitarist, and songwriter Kevin McKendree, who worked with McClinton for over a quarter century.  

Motormouth (Qualified Records) finds James teaming up with McKendree once again on 13 wonderful tracks, a mix of originals from James, McKendree,  Gary Nicholson, and others, along with terrific covers of tunes by Colin Linden, Leon Russell, Don Bryant, Doc Pomus, and even Delbert McClinton, who also contributes vocals to one of his contributions.  

This album is a treat from beginning to end, taking the best elements of Texas blues and swing, Memphis and Muscle Shoals soul, and even a dash of funky Louisiana flavoring.  There's something for just about any music fan on Motormouth.  Seth James is a talented singer and guitarist and if you enjoy the music of Delbert McClinton, James fits that style to a tee and then some, so check him out.

Our "Blast From The Past" selection this time doesn't venture too far into the past....it actually came out late last summer.  Leonard "Lowdown" Brown was born in Arkansas and raised in Indiana and was part of a musical family....all of his brothers and sisters played and his father gave him his first guitar at the age of six.  He moved to Houston in 1980 for work, but soon got into the city's blues scene, where he has been a mainstay ever since.  

Brown didn't release an album until he was 70, 2023's Blues Is Calling Me, but he followed that fine release two years later with Lowdown Street Party (Music Maker Foundation).  This one is produced by Jimbo Mathus, but according to Mathus there wasn't much for him to do.  When he reached out to Brown about the album, Brown sent him 10 well-crafted demos, and the album was subsequently recorded in three days, keeping nearly every first take with few overdubs.

This is a seriously funky set of blues that has a biographical feel....Brown wrote all ten tracks.  He's backed by Mathus on rhythm guitarist,  Mathus' band - the Creatures of the Southern Wild, and backing vocalists The Crimestoppers.  Though the songs are all newly written, the production has a nice, retro feel and the funkiness of it all just seeps into your backbone.  I saw Lowdown Street Party on Amazon and bought it on impulse, having never heard Leonard "Lowdown" Brown.  After hearing it, I went back and purchased his first album.  Blues fans are advised to do the same.  This is good stuff!!

“I do not play no Rock 'n' Roll.”

 

When Mississippi Fred McDowell was finally recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959, he was in his mid-fifties. That fact was pretty amazing considering how many Mississippi blues artists were recorded in the 1920's and 1930's and somehow, he was overlooked. Born in 1904, he was a few years younger than other Delta blues artists like Charley Patton (1891), Skip James (l902), Son House (1902), and Tommy Johnson (1896) and a few years older than Robert Johnson (1911), Howlin' Wolf (1910), Muddy Waters (1913), and John Lee Hooker (1917).

Like those listed above, he began playing the blues as a youth, around the age of 14 playing for tips at dances and fish fries around town (his parents died when he was young). Unlike those others, he got his start in Rossville, Tennessee, where he was born, not Mississippi.

He got tired of working on the farm and moved to Memphis around the age of 21 in 1926. He worked building railroad cars, working in a cotton oil mill, stacking logs. McDowell had learned guitar in Rossville from a Mississippi native named Raymond Payne and an uncle who played guitar with a slide made from a dried steak bone. McDowell eventually began using a pocketknife for a slide, developing his own unique style and technique.

In 1928, he moved to Mississippi, where he picked cotton and traveled around, learning to play some of Charley Patton's songs directly from Patton. He settled in Como, Mississippi around 1940, where he worked as a farmer during the week and continued to play music on weekends at parties, dances, and picnics in the Como area.

Alan Lomax had already recorded several blues men in the late 30's and early 40's, including Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, Lead Belly, and Josh White. He had moved to England during the Red Scare, but returned to the states in 1959. He and English folk singer Shirley Collins began traveling through the Southern U.S., hoping to re-record some of their previous artists with better equipment.

One of the artists he re-recorded on this trip (dubbed the Southern Journey) was Blind Sid Hemphill, who lived in Panola County, MS, part of the North Mississippi hill country. Hemphill recommended McDowell, who was still playing parties throughout the area, and Lomax was able to record 14 tracks by McDowell, who played his guitar on his neighbor Lonnie Young's front porch.

These stunning, intimate tracks included solo tracks by McDowell and others with guitarist Miles Pratcher, Fanny Davis (who played tissue paper and comb!), his wife Annie Mae, James Shorty, Sidney Carter, and Rose Hemphill all singing background vocals. Some of the cuts were featured on a four-volume set of those recordings called Sounds of the South in 1960 and later all 14 tracks were compiled by Rounder Records (see below), among others.

After the field recordings, McDowell simply returned to farming and playing for tips outside a Stuckey's store at Como, but those recordings did catch the attention of Chris Strachwitz, who came to Como to record him. There were two volumes released by Arhoolie, now collected as Mississippi Delta Blues in one volume, and they really caught the attention of the 60's blues and folk communities.

Here was a guy who completely missed the 20's and 30's recordings and managed to avoid any attention at all, just working as a farmer and playing music on the side. He was so modest and unassuming as well, just seeming to take all the attention in stride.

McDowell made subsequent recordings for Testament and Atlantic Records in the mid 60's, and numerous other recordings have surfaced over the years as well, a couple of which we'll discuss below.. His albums were a mix of blues standards and originals and spirituals, some of which featured vocals from his wife Annie Mae and the Hunter's Chapel Singers of Como.

In 1969, he went to Malaco Studios in Jackson, MS, armed with an electric guitar. This drove the blues purists nuts, but as gripping and compelling as McDowell's acoustic guitar playing was, his “plugged-in” brand of blues (complete with a rhythm section) was equally compelling. It was a perfect fit for electricity and I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll is an album that should be must-listening for any fan of Mississippi blues.

McDowell played multiple blues festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival and the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe. He appeared in several documentary films, and soon was influencing many of the up-and-coming blues-rock artists, such as Bonnie Raitt, who recorded several of his songs, and the Rolling Stones, whose version of “You Got To Move” on their Sticky Fingers album is one of their most memorable tracks.

McDowell with Bonnie Raitt

Sadly, Mississippi Fred McDowell's career was cut short because he was diagnosed with cancer in 1971. He subsequently passed away on July 3, 1972 at the age of 68. He was buried at Hammond Hill Baptist Church, between Como and Senatobia, MS. The Mount Zion Memorial Fund placed a memorial on his grave in 1993, replacing the old damaged one, which had McDowell's name misspelled and is now on display at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale). There's also a Mississippi Blues Trail marker for McDowell in downtown Como.

If you hear any North Mississippi hill country blues recordings, from R.L. Burnside and his family to the North Mississippi Allstars, it will all make sense as to how important Mississippi Fred McDowell was to Delta blues and continues to be to contemporary Mississippi blues.  Their albums have often included covers of McDowell tunes and new recordings that owe much to his style.

There are a stack of Mississippi Fred McDowell albums available, LP, CD, or digital.  You can't really go wrong with any of them, but I'm going to list a few that would be a nice start for newcomers.  The above-mentioned Alan Lomax recordings (First Recordings:  The Alan Lomax Portrait Series on Rounder Records) are, as the title indicates, the very first one done by McDowell.  They are very good, among his best, and have great sound, like you're listening from the front yard.  He performs solo and with the other artists mentioned above.  The Arhoolie set Mississippi Delta Blues, also mentioned above, should definitely be on your list as well.  There are a couple of tracks recorded by his friend Eli Green included, but McDowell's songs include many of his originals and a few of his renditions of traditional Delta blues tunes.

In addition, the 2003 Shout Factory! compilation set Heroes of the Blues:  The Very Best of Mississippi Fred McDowell catches what those first two collections missed, plus a few other, mixing blues with spirituals.  It's a very fine set and certainly covers his career pretty well.  Just about every McDowell tune that you've heard about over the years is included here and, even though he redid many of these over and over again, the versions collected here are all first-rate, so this might be the best starting point for newcomers.

A couple of others worth mentioning are the Capitol Records electric set, I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll, for which I'm so glad McDowell decided to "plug in."  These are truly remarkable and shed a whole new light on his brand of blues.  The Rounder set, Mississippi Fred McDowell, was recorded at his home in 1962, with no intention of being released.  The set is pretty intimate, he was just playing for himself more or less, and there's a powerful, raw energy to the songs. 

Speaking of powerful, raw energy, be sure to check out Mama Says I'm Crazy on Fat Possum Records.  This set was recorded by George Mitchell in 1967 and reunited McDowell and harmonica player Johnny Woods.  They had not played together in eight years, but you would never know from their performances.  If you happened to visit a Como, MS house party in the mid 60's, this is probably close to what you would have heard and if you're a Delta blues fan, it's just wonderful.  

Mississippi Fred McDowell may be a blues artists that more recent blues fans might have missed, but if they've listened to some of the newer blues artists, especially the North Mississippi hill country artists, they've gotten a taste of his sound.  However, new listeners should know that no one played this sound better than Fred McDowell and he has a lot of material out there to be sampled, so please check him out.