23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sitting Out On the Porch Steps, July 18, 2002
This review is from: Come on in This House (Audio CD)
Come On in This House, recorded by Junior Wells in 1996 is just plain fun - it's sitting out on the porch steps sipping lemonade on a hot summer day, it's laughing and joking with friends, and most of all it's good times and good music. Take a cd packed with songs, fourteen in all, make most of them classic blues, take a veteran bluesmen with impeccable timing, an awesome understated blues voice and add some of the best slide guitarist in the business, oh say about six and you have the makings of a great blues cd. Make it one of the last recordings of the great Junior Wells and it's unforgettable and a necessary component for the serious blues collector.
But please don't think this is music only for the serious blues listener, this is music that is wonderful and accessible to anyone. It is honest understated music, with depth and soul. There's no flash here, nothing strained or pretentious - no this is music of integrity that is fun to listen to.
Junior Wells, born Amos Blackmore in 1934 in Memphis Tennessee, teamed up with some of the best blues guitarist to record Come on In This House for Telarc. On this cd are Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Sonny Landreth, Bob Margolin, John Mooney and Derek Trucks. Each of these gentleman have a career of some repute in the blues genre, but if you haven't heard of them this cd is a perfect opportunity to get to know them.
Standards recorded for this cd include songs by Tampa Red, Sonny Boy Williamson, Arthur Crudup, Robert Nighthawk, Junior Parker and Little Walter as well as Junior Wells originals. The one new song Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman is worth the price of the cd. The interplay between Well's vocals and Landreth's National Steel Guitar are perfect.
It is little wonder that Come On In This House won the W.C. Handy award for best Traditional Blues Album in 1997, because every song is marvelous. It starts swinging it with That's All Right with young Derek Trucks, 16 on guitar and John Cleary on piano backing up Junior. It's all right now momma, yes indeed!- tasty guitar licks and the smoothest most mellow vocals by Junior Wells.
From the upbeat to the skeptical, melancholy blues of Why People Like that. Sonny Landreth and Derek Trucks exchange fire power on guitar while Junior continues his wonderful harmonica playing and sings:
They take your house and your home
They take the flesh from your bone
They take the shirt off your back
Why people like that.
Other songs of note include Tampa Red's She Wants to Sell My Monkey, Mystery Train, I'm Gonna Move to Kansas City and the title song an original by Junior Wells and brought out of retirement for this cd. It is a worthy addition, with Wells singing:
If I had a million dollars
I'd give you every dime
To hear you call me daddy
One more time.
I was lucky enough to see Junior Wells in person a few years before his death and remember his dynamism, swaggering confidence and extraordinary understated way of delivering a song. He made it seem so easy. This cd is a great reminder of what a wonderful performer he was. I think it is also a good introduction to traditional acoustic blues and will provide the listener with the opportunity to get to know some great blues players and some outstanding traditional blues songs.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A stellar collaboration., March 25, 2003
Junior Wells hardly needs any introduction. He is one of the best blues harp players of all time and one of the main figures in blues history, full stop. He played in the legendary band "The Ace", he has been member for years of the "Muddy Waters Band" during the period of its maximum splendour, he has had a long partnership with the great Buddy Guy, as well as a brilliant solo career. In two words a living legend. On this album, a true masterpiece, one of the album that you would certainly take with you on a desert island, he is accompanied by some of the best "young" blues guitarists around: Corey Harris, Alvin "Youngblood" Hart, Sonny Landreth, John Mooney, Derek Trucks, Tab Benoit and the "Muddy Waters Band" veteran Bob Margolin. Every guest plays at his best, and Junior Wells let them one by one take the centre of the scene. All of them are playing rigorously acoustic, national steel or, occasionally, electric slide guitar. 14 songs one better than the other. From the amazing cover of Tracy Chapman's hit "Give me one reason" with the fantastic performance of Sonny Landreth on national steel and electric slide guitars (it really sounds like another song!) to the stunning "Mystery Train" in which Corey Harris and Bob Margolin play the led. However it is really difficult to point out a particular song, this is the classic CD that you will never get tired to listening from start to finish. This CD is the perfect fusion between the acoustic sound of the Delta and the modern blues, without any doubt one of the best traditional blues album of the last 10 years. Don't miss it!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT STUFF !!!, May 6, 2001
By A Customer
If you like blues, RUN to buy this record. It contains 13 wonderful covers of classic songs such as "that's all right", "i'm so glad" (boy what a version !)... Wells is mesmerizing , his singing is incredibly authoritative, and at the same time fun and engaging. A bunch of star slide guitarists are also of the party, and the rest of the musicians (notably the drummer) are simply first class. Last but no least, the sound of this CD is great. One of my 10 best albums of all time. Each of my friends who has bougth it after my recommandation is addicted. GREAT stuff !
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