Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!

Snooks Eaglin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 21, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hepcat Records
• ASIN: B001UNSZBW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,970 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You Give Me Nothing But The Blues

2. Baby Please

3. Oh Sweetness

4. Profidia

5. Lavinia

6. Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!

7. Drop The Bomb!

8. That Certain Door

9. Mary Jo

10. Nobody Knows

11. Pretty Girls Everywhere

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 -- Legendary New Orleans blues guitarist's 1987 debut for Black Top, April 21, 2009

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Baby, You Can Get Your Gun! (Audio CD)

Snooks Eaglin - known as "The Human Jukebox" for the unmatched catalog of songs in his head - first surfaced in the 1950s New Orleans scene. As a guitarist with Allen Toussaint, he was on hand for the elemental forging of blues, R&B and rock `n' roll. He recorded under his own name for the Imperial label until it folded in 1963, and then only sporadically until he caught on with Black Top twenty-four years later. This 1987 album was the first in a run of five for Black Top, and shows off his encyclopedic knowledge, dexterous guitar playing, low-key vocals, straight blues sensibility and the funky second lines he carried from New Orleans.

Backed by a veteran Crescent City rhythm section of Erving Charles Jr. on bass and Smokey Johnson on drums (the latter of whom backed Eaglin on his early `60s sessions for Imperial), legendary session saxophonist David Lastle, and the highly regarded pianist/organist Ron Levy, the group hits a groove on all eleven tracks. A few, such as the original "Oh Sweetness," fades just as the band seems to be warming up for an extended jam. The song list includes straight blues, New Orleans second-lines, James Brown funk, and an instrumental salute to the Ventures in a cover of "Perfidia." Eaglin also takes to R&B ballads, such as Percy Mayfield's "Baby Please" and Dave Bartholomew's "Lavinia."

In addition to three originals, Eaglin resurrects tunes associated with Guitar Slim, Earl King, Smiley Lewis, and The Four Blazes. The album closes with the irresistible Crescent City funk of "Pretty Girls Everywhere," which at 3'35 would need to be played twice to keep dancers happy. Eaglin's at the top of his game threading his leads around his accompanists, providing driving rhythm lines and singing with a confident, easy swing. His early recordings for Imperial are worth tracking down, but for a full dose of his eclectic range, you can't top this album. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

5.0 out of 5 stars Snooks Rules, May 10, 2007

By 

Michael M. Bruns (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby You Can Get (Audio CD)

This is a fantastic CD. I love all the Blacktop stuff. I've come to the conclusion that Snooks is my favorite guitar player/singer in an R & B vein. I've loved Buddy Guy, B.B., Freddie, Albert K, Albert C and many others, but Snooks is very different from them. He's a singer/arranger/rhythm-lead player and draws from a much wider variety of song styles than most people categorized as blues. His ability to intersperse totally driving rhythm, fills and leads is uncanny and I don't know anyone who does it better. You'll hear great blues licks, a few slinky diminished jazz runs, slamming funk rhythm guitar, beautiful Ray Charles-influenced vocals and Snooks' inimitable patter and sense of humor. When I hear Snooks, there's never a moment where I think "Oh, I can't wait for the solo," or "I don't like this part." I love the whole thing beginning to end.

I just saw Snooks in New Orleans at Jazz Fest 2007 and at the Rock n Bowl. At the Rock n Bowl he said his arthritis was acting up and you could tell. I've never heard him struggle with the guitar like that in 15 years of live listening. Amazingly, the next day at JF, he just tore the Blues Tent down. He was amazing overall and his guitar playing was outstanding with no residue of his hard night the night before. If you ever have a chance to catch Snooks, do it. People just went nuts. The place was packed and people were screaming their bloody heads off for Snooks, a well-deserved response. We should all be hitting it like that at 71. There's nobody else like him. You'll walk out of the show just grinning ear to ear and happier to be alive.

5.0 out of 5 stars New Orleans treasure, November 1, 2005

By 

tehuti (Fullerton, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baby You Can Get (Audio CD)

I bought this CD strictly for "You Give Me Nothing But the Blues". That song is the theme song for a local weekend blues radio show of the same name. Prior to that I did not know anything about Snooks or any of his other music. But he has become one of my favorite guitarists. If you don't have any of Snooks' music this CD is a good place to start. His mix of New Orleans flavored blues and R&B is infectious.

This year I was fortunate enough to hear him play (The place was too packed for us to SEE him) at the Mid-Cities Lanes Rock & Bowl in New Orleans, just a few months before the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. From what I hear Snooks is fine, but I wonder if the old bowling alley was as lucky. If they ever get back up and running I would recommend stopping by there when Snooks is playing. It's a rare treat.