CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE
''''I AIN'T LYIN'...''''
2015
57:50
1 Good Blues Tonight 04:02
2 Done Somebody Wrong 04:15
3 Long Lean Lanky Mama 04:51
4 Always Be My Friend 03:29
5 If I should have bad luck 05:59
6 My Kinda Gal 07:38
7 Blues Why Do You Worry Me 04:57
8 300 Miles To Go 04:48
9 Long Leg Woman 06:18
10 Cristo Redentor 05:55
11 Good Blues Tonight (Unedited) 05:32
ABOUT THE ALBUM
By Steve Daniels, bigcitybluesmag.com
These days it’s acknowledged that Charlie Musselwhite is not only a maestro of the blues, but also its doyen. His longevity may be rivaled by James Cotton, Lazy Lester, and Billy Boy Arnold, and a few others, but his timing, tone, and taste are arguably nonpareil. Highly respected by his fellow musicians, he is also popular with fans, as attested by his 30 Blues Music Awards garnered from the Blues Foundation’s fan base. The quality of the albums he has been releasing on various labels for almost 50 years is consistently high; here is another that hits the mark.
Partly recorded live at a festival in Sonoma, CA, in Sept. 2014 and partly laid down in a studio in Clarksdale, MS, the set comprises ten basic 12-bar tunes, all but one composed by Musselwhite, presented impeccably by the man himself on harmonica and bandmates Matt Stubbs on guitar, Steve Froberg on bass, and June Core on drums. (I specify Musselwhite’s concentration on harp because - unbeknownst to many - he also happens to be a skilled guitarist.) Most are mid-tempo, and they hew to a stable pattern: instrumental intro, vocal, harmonica solo, vocal, guitar solo, vocal, harmonica solo, end vocal and instrumental coda. In lesser hands the predictability could be tiresome, but this quartet keeps it fresh with its virtuosity.
A pleasant feature of the set is the wry humor of many of Musselwhite’s lyrics. In “Good Blues Tonight” (a syncopated blues with Latino flavor, of which we get two versions), he sings: “I ain’t no doctor, I ain’t no doctor’s son, but I can ease your pain ‘til the doctor come; I ain’t no engineer, but I can drive your train.” Sexual double entendre is also featured in several other songs, particularly his apparent attraction to “long lean lanky” women; no big-leg women on this disc. The tough road of the blues is acknowledged; in one of the best tracks, “Blues, Why Do You Worry Me?” he intones, “If blues don’t kill me, I wasn’t intended to die.”
Throughout, Froberg lends solid but unobtrusive bass support, and Core provides a steady beat with mighty fine fills and flourishes. Stubbs dances up and down the guitar neck with a heady mix of single notes and chords, at times reminiscent of the late great Hollywood Fats and other times creatively original.
Musselwhite handles the vocals adeptly with his trademark baritone interspersed with the occasional rasp and growl, supply sliding into some choruses just before or after the beat.
Oh, yeah: Charlie’s harmonica work. Well, let’s just say that he gets it right, moving from high to low register in dazzling runs of facility, flair, and emotion. Ironically, the only cut which didn’t enthrall me was the lone departure from the 12-bar format, a rendition of “Christo Redentor,” which he has recorded numerous times previously and probably played thousands of time live. He has delivered better versions, but that cavil hardly detracts from the value of the album.
WEBSITE
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Dan Forte
Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they both stand out as being especially faithful to the style. Each certainly earned the respect of his legendary mentors. No less than the late Big Joe Williams said, "Charlie Musselwhite is one of the greatest living harp players of country blues. He is right up there with Sonny Boy Williamson, and he's been my harp player ever since Sonny Boy got killed."
It's interesting that Williams specifies "country" blues, because, even though he made his mark leading electric bands in Chicago and San Francisco, Musselwhite began playing blues with people he'd read about in Samuel Charters' Country Blues -- Memphis greats like Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Gus Cannon. It was these rural roots that set him apart from Butterfield, and decades later Musselwhite began incorporating his first instrument, guitar.
Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1944, and his family moved north to Memphis, where he went to high school. Musselwhite migrated to Chicago in search of the near-mythical $3.00-an-hour job (the same lure that set innumerable youngsters on the same route), and became a familiar face at blues haunts like Pepper's, Turner's, and Theresa's, sitting in with and sometimes playing alongside harmonica lords such as Little Walter, Shakey Horton, Good Rockin' Charles, Carey Bell, Big John Wrencher, and even Sonny Boy Williamson. Before recording his first album, Musselwhite appeared on LPs by Tracy Nelson and John Hammond and duetted (as Memphis Charlie) with Shakey Horton on Vanguard's Chicago/The Blues/Today series.
When his aforementioned debut LP became a standard on San Francisco's underground radio, Musselwhite played the Fillmore Auditorium and never returned to the Windy City. Leading bands that featured greats like guitarists Harvey Mandel, Freddie Roulette, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, and Junior Watson, Musselwhite played steadily in Bay Area bars and mounted somewhat low-profile national tours. It wasn't until the late '80s, when he conquered a career-long drinking problem, that Musselwhite began touring worldwide to rave notices. He became busier than ever and continued releasing records to critical acclaim.
His two releases on Virgin, Rough News in 1997 and Continental Drifter in 2000, found Musselwhite mixing elements of jazz, gospel, Tex-Mex, and acoustic Delta blues. After signing with Telarc Blues in 2002, he continued exploring his musical roots by releasing One Night in America. The disc exposed Musselwhite's interest in country music with a cover version of the Johnny Cash classic "Big River," and featured guest appearances by Kelly Willis and Marty Stuart. Sanctuary, released in 2004, was Musselwhite's first record for Real World. After extensive touring globally, he returned to the studio for its follow-up, the back-to-basics Delta Hardware, recorded in Mississippi. The set was hard-edged and raw blues and featured one live track, the hip-shaking "Clarksdale Boogie," recorded in front of a small but enthusiastic audience at Red's Juke Joint in that very town. Musselwhite returned to Alligator in 2009 and got down to business and cut The Well in Chicago, an all-original program that featured a guest duet appearance from Mavis Staples on the track "Sad Beautiful World." The song references the murder of his 93-year-old mother during a burglary in her home.
TO THE TOP
''''I AIN'T LYIN'...''''
2015
57:50
1 Good Blues Tonight 04:02
2 Done Somebody Wrong 04:15
3 Long Lean Lanky Mama 04:51
4 Always Be My Friend 03:29
5 If I should have bad luck 05:59
6 My Kinda Gal 07:38
7 Blues Why Do You Worry Me 04:57
8 300 Miles To Go 04:48
9 Long Leg Woman 06:18
10 Cristo Redentor 05:55
11 Good Blues Tonight (Unedited) 05:32
ABOUT THE ALBUM
By Steve Daniels, bigcitybluesmag.com
These days it’s acknowledged that Charlie Musselwhite is not only a maestro of the blues, but also its doyen. His longevity may be rivaled by James Cotton, Lazy Lester, and Billy Boy Arnold, and a few others, but his timing, tone, and taste are arguably nonpareil. Highly respected by his fellow musicians, he is also popular with fans, as attested by his 30 Blues Music Awards garnered from the Blues Foundation’s fan base. The quality of the albums he has been releasing on various labels for almost 50 years is consistently high; here is another that hits the mark.
Partly recorded live at a festival in Sonoma, CA, in Sept. 2014 and partly laid down in a studio in Clarksdale, MS, the set comprises ten basic 12-bar tunes, all but one composed by Musselwhite, presented impeccably by the man himself on harmonica and bandmates Matt Stubbs on guitar, Steve Froberg on bass, and June Core on drums. (I specify Musselwhite’s concentration on harp because - unbeknownst to many - he also happens to be a skilled guitarist.) Most are mid-tempo, and they hew to a stable pattern: instrumental intro, vocal, harmonica solo, vocal, guitar solo, vocal, harmonica solo, end vocal and instrumental coda. In lesser hands the predictability could be tiresome, but this quartet keeps it fresh with its virtuosity.
A pleasant feature of the set is the wry humor of many of Musselwhite’s lyrics. In “Good Blues Tonight” (a syncopated blues with Latino flavor, of which we get two versions), he sings: “I ain’t no doctor, I ain’t no doctor’s son, but I can ease your pain ‘til the doctor come; I ain’t no engineer, but I can drive your train.” Sexual double entendre is also featured in several other songs, particularly his apparent attraction to “long lean lanky” women; no big-leg women on this disc. The tough road of the blues is acknowledged; in one of the best tracks, “Blues, Why Do You Worry Me?” he intones, “If blues don’t kill me, I wasn’t intended to die.”
Throughout, Froberg lends solid but unobtrusive bass support, and Core provides a steady beat with mighty fine fills and flourishes. Stubbs dances up and down the guitar neck with a heady mix of single notes and chords, at times reminiscent of the late great Hollywood Fats and other times creatively original.
Musselwhite handles the vocals adeptly with his trademark baritone interspersed with the occasional rasp and growl, supply sliding into some choruses just before or after the beat.
Oh, yeah: Charlie’s harmonica work. Well, let’s just say that he gets it right, moving from high to low register in dazzling runs of facility, flair, and emotion. Ironically, the only cut which didn’t enthrall me was the lone departure from the 12-bar format, a rendition of “Christo Redentor,” which he has recorded numerous times previously and probably played thousands of time live. He has delivered better versions, but that cavil hardly detracts from the value of the album.
WEBSITE
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Dan Forte
It's interesting that Williams specifies "country" blues, because, even though he made his mark leading electric bands in Chicago and San Francisco, Musselwhite began playing blues with people he'd read about in Samuel Charters' Country Blues -- Memphis greats like Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Gus Cannon. It was these rural roots that set him apart from Butterfield, and decades later Musselwhite began incorporating his first instrument, guitar.
When his aforementioned debut LP became a standard on San Francisco's underground radio, Musselwhite played the Fillmore Auditorium and never returned to the Windy City. Leading bands that featured greats like guitarists Harvey Mandel, Freddie Roulette, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, and Junior Watson, Musselwhite played steadily in Bay Area bars and mounted somewhat low-profile national tours. It wasn't until the late '80s, when he conquered a career-long drinking problem, that Musselwhite began touring worldwide to rave notices. He became busier than ever and continued releasing records to critical acclaim.
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2 comments :
Thanks for all the good music!
Keep on rockin'!
Wedel Pinneberg
Thanks, friend Wedel.
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