Tag: records

THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM Keith Emerson Emerson Records: Keith CD 1 One of the great annoyances of the holiday season is the large amount of horrendous Christmas music that pops up on store shelves for a few weeks. Mercifully, it all disappears after the New Year. Just about everybody has recorded some sort of Christmas album, […]

THE BIG BREAK Little Charlie and the Nightcats Alligator AL 4776 I avoided listening to this record for a long time. Call it reverse prejudice or whatever, but I’d had it up to here with white-boy blues bands and their lead singers named “Little This” or “Something Slim” posing in pseudoghetto garb–porkpie hats, secondhand leisure […]

WHITE WINDOWS David “Honeyboy” Edwards Blue Suit 102 It’s always interesting to hear what a blues traditionalist does to keep well-worn ideas fresh. Some veteran artists adopt a museum-piece approach, rehashing famous folk themes and affecting quaint “living legend” personas. The most adept rustic survivor from a bygone era was probably Big Bill Broonzy, who […]

CHICKEN, GRAVY & BISCUITS Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials Alligator AL 4772 When west-side guitarist Lil’ Ed Williams burst onto the scene two years ago with the joyously rowdy Roughhousin’ LP, many hailed it as a return by Alligator Records to the kind of raw, unpretentious blues that made Chicago famous. Although his open-throttle […]

LUCKY STRIKES! Lucky Peterson Alligator AL 4770 Despite the renewed mainstream popularity of the blues, aficionados still lament the dearth of the kind of deeply expressive, emotionally taut performances that distinguished the music during its heyday. The litany is familiar: style has won out over substance, spectacle over soul, technique over truth. Especially among young […]

THAT WOMAN IS POISON! Rufus Thomas Alligator Records AL 4769 Rufus Thomas is the patriarch of Memphis soul music. Although he’s best known to mainstream audiences as the purveyor of such novelty dance numbers as “Walkin’ the Dog” and “The Funky Chicken,” a special respect is due him for his role in keeping the blues […]

SUNSHINE ON LEITH The Proclaimers Chrysalis FV41668 I’m not prone to racism, but the first time I got a glimpse of the Proclaimers I indulged in a riot of it. A colleague–one of these pointy-headed, British Simon Frith sociologist types–had said something about a pair of folkie Scotch twins who reminded him of Billy Bragg. […]

SPIKE Elvis Costello Warner Bros. 9 25848-1 “I wish you’d known me when I was alive,” croons Elvis Costello, with a studied dissolution, on his new LP, Spike. He’s referring, obliquely, to his celebrated death-and-rebirth dog and pony show of three years ago: After a ten-year career of almost unrelieved caustic energy, the onetime London […]

THE GOLDEN VOICE OF ROBERT COVINGTON Robert Covington Red Beans/RB-012 Most Chicago blues fans know Robert Covington as the energetic shuffle drummer who lays down the foundation for the Sunnyland Slim Blues Band. As Sunnyland’s percussionist, Covington gets the chance to sing two or three songs a set. His affable nature and resonant voice have […]

TRAVELING WILBURYS VOLUME ONE Traveling Wilburys Wilbury Records 25796-1 There was a time when the rock ‘n’ roll super session seemed almost meaningful. Clapton and Winwood–together! Beck and Stewart and Truth! Crosby and Stills and Nash and Young! It was thought that opposites–John and Paul-style–could somehow attract, calm each other’s excesses, and produce good music. […]

TALK IS CHEAP Keith Richards Virgin Records America 790973-2 There is no freedom without constraint, no innocence without guilt; paradise exists only as paradise lost. If we lived in paradise, there would be no need to define these things: in paradise, freedom and innocence are the status quo. In music, syncopation–the lifeblood of rock ‘n’ […]

JAMES COTTON RECORDED LIVE AT ANTONE’S NIGHT CLUB Antone’s Records and Tapes ANT0007 Harmonica player James Cotton has a reputation as an exhilarating live performer whose high-energy, boogie-laden blues has never been accurately captured on record. During the mid-70s, he carried what was arguably the tightest working blues band of its day–featuring Matt “Guitar” Murphy […]

FROM THE ARCHIVES, VOLUME III Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radiothon 13 Premium S15-35 (LP), S17-50 (CD) (Reviewed on CD) “Mr. Still, have you ever played this piece before?” “Of course I have.” “Oh yes, I forgot. It must have been in Baltimore–with the Orioles.” This infamous little exchange took place in Orchestra Hall over 30 years […]

CHICAGO STYLE Yank Rachell Delmark DS-649 AIRBUSTERS Hip Linkchain Black Magic 9011 In recent years the well-crafted, modern sounds of such smooth young blues musicians as Robert Cray, Albert Collins, and Lonnie Brooks have achieved an unprecedented level of mainstream acceptance. Less obvious, but even more important to the long-term survival of the music, has […]