Customer Reviews

Carey Bell's Blues Harp

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4 star:		(1)
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Don't be mislead by any reviews that you might read about this CD in the printed guides for blues CD's. This is simply one fine set of recordings by a great bluesman. Carey Bell came along at a time during the late 60's when Blues was being threatened by an influx of mediocre rock and funk bands. This CD is direct, honest, raw, and blue. Bell is backed here by some of Chicago's finest - Jimmy Dawkins, Eddie Taylor, Pinetop Perkins, and Willie Williams; all of them 20 year-plus veterans by the time these recordings were cut (1969). Bob Koester's Delmark label has never released a bad recording and these sides are no exception.

Revel in Bell's version of "I'm Ready", "Rocking with a Chromatic", and "Blue Monday at Kansas City Red's". Carey Bell is an original with his own harp sound and a fine vocalist in the bluest of traditions. Catch Carey Bell live if you get the chance, then go home and play this CD and you will will understand the soul of a great bluesman.

If you enjoyed this CD, you will likely want to pick up Earl Hooker's "Two Bugs and a Roach" CD on Arhoolie records. Bell sings up a great "Love Ain't a Plaything" on that reissue and you won't be disappointed in the least by Earl Zebedee Hooker's incredible slide guitar on that same CD.

This is a "can't miss" CD for any fan interested in Chicago Blues. Carey's wailing harp drives the music with such authority and authenticity, one is reminded of the best of Little Walter and Paul Butterfield. His vocals recall the ambience of "Chicago. The Blues. Today" from the '60s--which is to say, Carey never lost his way. This is the "real deal". Particularly rewarding and joyful are Carey's chromatic efforts, "Blue Monday", "Rocking with a Chromatic", and "Carey Bell's Blues Harp". This is the best thing since Little Walter, and Little Walter himself would have to stand back and admire this CD.

The title says it all: "Carey Bell's Blues Harp" is as straightforward as the liner notes, the cover graphic (the CD cover isn't the original, which was even plainer...) , the production, and, thankfully, the music. "Harp" was one of Bob Koester's earliest Delmark sides (1969) and those sides (starting with the Guy/Wells "Hoodoo Man", and including "Southside Soul", "Hawk Squat" etc. ) led to a real revival of blues recording, the idea that (at least for a while) you could build an American label on blues, and eventually spawned Alligator Records.

"Harp" is "unpolished", and Koester's production consisted mostly of getting the music down on record as close as possible to how it sounded live, without much studio fiddling.

The music is the electric Chicago blues, by (mostly) the generation of players that followed Muddy and Wolf, early in their careers, and clearly delighted to be getting their music out beyond the bars and clubs they gigged in.

Every white-kid would-be blues player I knew in 1975 wore these records out, memorizing 'em note by note. I've owned "Blues Harp" in all three formats, and worn out the LP and cassette.

Belongs in the top 50 blues recordings of 1965-1975, and that's a LOTTA records to beat!

Being an old harp player from Chicago,living in Taiwan though, the best place to get a down home Chi-town blues harp infusion is from brother Bell.This album is rough but dirty and his fusion of Chi and Delta blues is sooooo bad!

Though he has recorded many albums since this one, it remains my favorite Carey Bell album. It features two different sessions, one with Eddie Taylor on guitar, the other featuring Jimmy Dawkins and Pinetop Perkins. Every track smokes, most notably the instrumental "Sad Dreams", with its wonderful interplay between Bells harmonica and Dawkins guitar. There are three other instrumentals and they all sizzle with the band clicking perfectly. The versions of blues classics "I'm Ready" and "Last Night" are very fine as well, and most of the other songs are Bell originals that are played terrifically.
If you are new to Carey Bell, this is a fine place to start your collection. He has risen to the level of his heroes Little Walter and Walter Horton, and this disc proves that throughout.

A nice blues album, Carey Bell is known more for his harp playing than for other aspects of his music, but I found this album to be a fairly standard, electric blues album, with the blues harp a complimentary, but not primary part. The music is strong throughout.