Gone Magazine

Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds
Recorded live at the Craw Daddy Club in London in 1963, this album comes as spectacular end to Sonny Boy’s career (the Sonny Boy on this album being Rice Miller or Sonny Boy Williamson the 2nd not John Lee Williamson aka Sonny Boy Williamson the 1st) and an inspired start of the Yardbirds, although a bit uncharacteristic for them with tuned down and rather sparse playing, probably done to compliment Sonny Boy’s solely unique style. Never the less, this album produced some great tracks and seems to have sparked the worlds interest in the Yardbirds (who only had one rather lackluster record under their belt at this point), which the subsequent tour perpetuated with the publicity of their outrageous live shows, offstage debauchery and crazed antics, the most notable of which seems to be when Sony Boy lit his hotel room ablaze trying to cook a rabbit in the coffee percolator! However despite the world’s peaking interest, the collaboration was short lived dissolving when Sonny Boy fled Europe after stabbing a man in an drunken bar brawl, leaving room for the Yardbirds to develop into the sixties rock icons they became.

Aretha Franklin
“The First 12 Sides”
Recorded by the great John Hammond in 1960(?), when Aretha was barely 18, these tracks play more like what you would expect from a young Billie Holiday than a young soul diva. Throughout the album Aretha’s voice reaches levels jazz vocalists would die for at their prime while her piano playing (yes, she played piano on a few tracks when she got bored with just singing) rivals contemporary greats like Fats Waller. Musically the album strikes a chord somewhere between a southern Baptist church choir lead by Son House and the 40’s jump blues of the Wynonnie Harris era with a touch of the soul to come. Understandably overlooked by soul fanatics demanding Arethra’s “Respect”, it is inexcusable for this album to remain overlooked by the true blues/jazz aficionado

Buddy Boy Hawkins
“Buddy Boy Hawkins and His Buddies:1924-1934”
Enigmatic country blues, seems to be the only words to describe Buddy Boy’s unique style of playing, which seems technically speaking to be classical music worked into a blues idiom with hints of flamenco inspired guitar and heavy overtones of Django Rienhardt (which I say despite Django not hitting the scene until a few years after Hawkins disappeared). Oh and I know what the fuck? But hey, listen to the chord structure, the interplay of bass lines, not to mention his unusual guitar usually played in four voices and you’ll know what I’m talking about. As hard as it is to understand musically it’s even harder to understand where he got it from since next to nothing is known of Hawkins’ life and very little of his recorded work still exists. In fact the whole b-side of the album consists of his work on other artist records such as Will Day, Little Hat Jones, “Funny Paper” Smith and Blind Percy on all of which Hawkins adds a wonderful texture to that is absent from any of their other recordings. Well worth a listen by any blues purist, rock historian, or curious audiophile not only for the anomaly that is Buddy Boy but also for the opus of forgotten blues tunes that deserves a much needed revival.
……………………………………………

Frankie Lee Sims
“Walkin with Frankie: Unissued Cuts from 1960 ”
Few blues men can pull off a good blend of pre war country blues and post war electric blues and none as effortlessly as Frankie Lee Sims does. Unfortunately Sims seems relegated to history as an obscure Texas blues man who once recorded with a then unknown Carl Perkins and for being the cousin of the great Lightnin’ Hopkins, although truthfully Sims deserves a place of honor among the Texas stars. Part of Sims ambiguity is probably due to his drinking habits and trouble with the law (most of which revolved around shooting incidents, all of which the outcome seems to remain unknown) that most likely attributed to his lack of recordings. The tracks on this album were actually taken from three barely audible acetates (ten whole grooves had to be fully repaired, which needless to say had to be a bitch of a job) recorded for Fire Records.  It was well worth the effort though and made for one hell of an album chocked full of raunchy Texas blues reminiscent of T Bone Walker, Smokey Hogg and Lightnin’ but with a far more metropolitan feel due mostly to Sims’ backing musicians, all of which remain unknown but bear a remarkable resemblance to Big Boy Arthur Crudup’s backing band during his Fire Record sessions.

Nothing seems to embody the blues better than the image of a blind black man traveling the south with his two dollar Harmony guitar playing street corners and house parties for a few bucks and plug or two of whiskey and that so happens to describe precisely the details of Willie McTell’s life. It may have been a tough life, but it sure made for some great music with McTell recording perhaps some of the most quintessential examples of pre war blues, from the sparse rudimentary guitar work straight down to the haunting vocals expressing the conflict of the blues man’s soul; being stuck somewhere between sin and salvation, between the church and the drunken boasts.

Stuck somewhere in no mans land between Louis Jordan and Jackie Wilson, Nappy Brown’s recordings can be claimed as the precursor to rock and roll, soul, and even hip-hop. Nappy’s tunes explode with jazzy drum and bass dominated “strippers’ grooves” overlaid with orgasmic shouting vocals that just ooze sex. Perhaps the best example of Nappy’s musical seduction would be “Night Time Is The Right Time” (which he is credited with writing although some scholars attribute it to Roosevelt Sykes and Nappy claims to have gotten from an old Cecil Gant song, although no recordings of either’s versions appear to exist), whose sexual undertones would have made Ray Charles blush. Aside from the sexuality of his work, Nappy is notable for his bizarre technique of rolling his consonants and making up his syllables producing a sound distinctive among his jazz/blues contemporaries that led Savoy Records president Herman Lubinsky to believe he was singing in Yiddish. Unfortunately, Nappy happened to hit the scene at the wrong time in America’s musical lineage and quickly became overshadowed by newer devolping forms of music and musicians. Luckily for us however, Nappy is seeing a resurgence of popularity recently releasing a new album to critical acclaim that is currently up for a Blues Music Award from the Blues Foundation and is well worth a listen although I suggest first taking a trip back and checking out his original releases.

Two boogie blues greats finally meet in this Tour De Force album from blues great John Lee Hooker and sixties superstars Canned Heat, resulting in what might be the pinnacle of all the musicians careers. Consisting mostly of Hooker performing solo some of his classic tunes the album really stands out for the rest of the songs, mainly being duets between Hooker and Heat’s front man Alan Wilson with the rest of  Canned Heat accompanying them here and there.

Sometimes a woman thinks it won’t be long and by long she means ever. The longing in Aretha Franklins’ voice is on the first track of … is only made more haunting by her AMAZING version of somewhere over the rainbow. If you’ve ever felt loneliness that  resonates through you’re soul then this is the record to get. Hell hath no fury like a woman scourned and it is best epitomized by the First 12 sides. The fact that Aretha released most of these songs when she was just a teenager makes this album all the more amazing—reaching to the depths of femininity like few other women of her time—teen or adult. Songs like Sweet Love, where she chastises a lover for noticing that no one will ever be better than her is an anthem for all women who know that they are the best thing that will ever happen to their mate. Aretha drives this point home by making this the follow up song to Love is the only thing and the precursor to All Night Long. Ladies, wanna get it on? Listen to All Night Long and then get it on all night long. It’s all about a woman who is in love with the image of man. Well, that’s never happened to anyone I know. I mean, really, who hasn’t had a random man that she may have seen at the grocery store or gas station and decided he was the ONE for her. His biceps just squeezed ht