Customer Reviews

Blues Anytime

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This LP was cut in East Germany while the gang was over in Europe for the American Folk Blues Festival in 1964. The musician names on this CD ought to give you a clue as to how great it is. This is some awesome blues. Check out the amazing power on the Sumlin cuts "I Love" and "Hubert's Blues"...unbelievable stuff.

Sumlin's amazing talking blues. Sunnyland's valuable blue piano. Great CD. Buy it!!

This is a historical recording in a blues festival. Artists named in this CD are not only the blues masters but also the artists who did not release many records as a primary artist. Great blues after great blues. Awesome CD.

German producer Horst Lippman, who will be familiar to fans of the exquisite "American Folk Blues Festival" DVDs, produced this November 1, 1964 session behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany.

Bassist/guitarist Willie Dixon, pianist Sunnyland Slim, and Howlin' Wolf's legendary guitarist Hubert Sumlin are backed by blues drummer par excellence Clifton James on most of these twelve tracks, and while a few slow songs never really get off the ground, there is some good material here worthy of attention.

This is Hubert Sumlins first time singing on record. He performs the lead vocals on two songs, and provides two instrumentals as well...acoustic ones, no less, displaying once again his prowess on the guitar.

The title track is a run-of-the mill, partly spoken slow blues by Willie Dixon, who fares a little better on the acoustic "Big Legged Woman". But the best performances are those by Sunnyland Slim...not highly original, perhaps, but sturdy and rather enjoyable.

Casual blues fans who are taken in by the praise being heaped upon this decent but unremarkable and not particularly accessible studio album will be disappointed...the least of Muddy Waters' or Howlin' Wolf's Chess singles can easily compare to the best song here.

But seasoned blues fans will certainly find something to like. Sunnyland Slim's performances are generally the best, but Hubert Sumlin's solo rendition of the Lightnin' Hopkins-pastiche "I Love" is very charming, as is Willie Dixon's take on his own "My Babe".

This is not an instant classic, though...most of the live recordings from the mid-60s blues festivals are head and shoulders above this occationally-good-but-never-truly-great set.

If you buy one record combing the talents of the vastly neglected Sunnyland Slim, the prodigous Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf's back-up man, Hubert Sumlin, this would be it. Stripped down blues with a feeling. More real soul than a crate of SRV CDs. Dah real thing.