Customer Reviews

Door to Door

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you didn't know any better, you would think that an album credited to "Albert King & Otis Rush" is some sort of collaboration between the two left-handed blues guitarists.

It's not, though. "Door To Door" is merely a collection of the few singles that King and Rush recorded during their short tenure with the Chess brothers in Chicago.
It's still a good album, however, and I suppose this way of re-issuing King's eight and Rush's six singles is better than putting out two seperate CDs.

Albert King, the older of the two men, does a great T-Bone Walker on "Bad Luck" (excellent piano playing on that one, courtesy of "Little" Johnny Jones), and "Won't Be Hangin' Around" is one of his greatest slow blues.
King also shines on the soulful, saxophone-driven "Searchin' For A Woman", and he does a very credible "Howlin' For My Darling" (originally written for Howlin' Wolf).

You should note that three of the six Otis Rush numbers are remakes of songs that he cut just a couple of years earlier with Cobra Records (not that they're not great), but this 1960 session also produced the original version of one of his best songs, the smouldering "So Many Roads, So Many Trains", which features what must be one of the greatest slow blues guitar solo of all time, as well as soulful blues piano playing by Lafayette Leake.
("Oddie" Payne is credited as Rush's drummer. It's "Odie". Like the dog!)

This is not an essential purchase perhaps (all the best songs can be found on other albums), but it is a very enjoyable collection of the few songs that these two excellent guitar players cut for the biggest blues label in town, and the quality of the material is high all the way through.

Most of us who lived in the Blues revival of the 1960s remember this landmark recording. The Blues was coming back and Chess Records, the original home of Chicago Blues, wanted their fair share of it! These recordings were in the Chess vault for ten years are would not have been released had it not been for the success of Albert King at Stax Records in Memphis.

King had recorded his set for this LP in East St. Louis and used them as a demo for Chess. They weren't really interested. Otis Rush, who has had the worst luck of any Bluesman with record deals, had come out of favour with no follow up to his massive hit "I Can't Quit You Baby" on Cobra Records. The label had gone under due the the underworld dealings of its owner. So he was looking around too.

The result was this landmark record. Two left-handed guitarists on one record! Albert King sounds as raw and basic as you will ever hear him. His tunes (maybe due to Jimmy Reed's influence) don't match the titles. I think that's cool. For example "Wild Woman", a template for "Crosscut Saw" never mentions the title; "Looking For A Woman" never explains what it is about- but its a Blind Lemon Jefferson takeoff on "Matchbox Blues" that King did right up until his death and the most famous tune on this CD; "Won't Be Hangin Round" ,is the first recorded version of his most famous lick: The stop-break bends in the first four bars of the progression-yeah! It also never articulates the song title! This is top blues!

The Otis Rush set is more diverse with remakes of several of his Cobra tunes. Most memorable would have to be "All Your Love", made famous as a cover version on John Mayall's Bluesbreakers LP. I always liked his slow tune "So Close", almost as pop, do-wop blues and the remake of the Cobra tune "I'm Satisfied" with its Gospel overtones. Fantastic!

This record has an interesting history. It was released as CD from Europe, first France in 1986 and then the Charly Label in 1987. They were withdrawn and Chess issued this remaster in 1990.It is now getting harder to locate so do yourself a favour and get a copy now!

Update: 2007 - There is now a new remaster of this classic album just released from Japan. There is also a new German version as well.
It's great that this classic material will still be available for some time to come.

Imported CD's available at amazon.com are often Japanese versions featuring bonus tracks available only in Japan. The album info at this site doesn't specify which country the version they're selling has been imported from. I have the Japanese one, though, and in this case there are no bonus tracks. So unless you need the liner notes in Japanese, go with the domestic version.

Door To Door is a great album, but I took off one star because if you're an Otis Rush fan, chances are you already have all these tracks on one of the several versions of his 50's Cobra sessions. This is a must for Albert King fans though. In addition to 5 tracks from '61, it has his first sessions as a leader - 3 tracks recorded in '53. You can hear the beginnings of his distinct style, but the overall sound is much more raw than the slick, funky Memphis soul sound of his Stax era recordings.

There a singers and then there are SINGERS! Can you give an album 5 stars on the basis of one cut? "So Many Roads" is an absolute must! Otis' singing is truly stunning. Easily one of his best performances. Does the rest of the album deliver the same? No quite, but you only get to go to heaven sometimes. Otis is one of the few who can get you there. Try it the next time you think your coming down with a cold. Twelve bucks? No brainer.

This (expensive) CD is a re-release of the famous Chess record that came out in the late 1960s, after Albert King became famous at Stax records. Recorded in the early sixties, this material stayed in the Chess vaults for almost ten years before its release. This "Limited Edition" is from Japan and has been remastered. It should be noted that currently there is also a German version of this CD a little bit cheaper. These sides include Albert's early Parrot sides e.g., "Be On Your Merry Way" and "Murder" which show him as a young budding guitarist. The Chess sides, which were recorded in St Louis, are raw and very interesting. "Howling On My Darling" and "Won't Be Hangin' Round" are the pick of his set. King also re-records some of his early King Records tunes such as "California".

Otis Rush does some great stuff as well. He does new versions of a couple of his Cobra sides such as "All Your Love" and "Keep On Loving Me Baby" and some pop-blues items such as "So Close". He even sings part of one tune in a mean falsetto! The track "So Many Roads" is regarded as an urban blues classic, one of Chess Records greatest sides. Overall, this is an historic album. Please read my other review of this Chess re-issue (in the U.S. version) for more details on the history of this LP and its tracks. This version is a very expensive import and it would only suit very serious fans or collectors. This is probably the only time two left-handed guitarists were featured on one album!

You don't ordinarily associate either Albert King or Otis Rush with Chess, and with good reason: both men cut only a few sides each for the label during transitional phases of their careers, not counting the engaging ancient Parrot sides of Big Albert included here. More to the point, neither man was of the Chicago blues style as it's most commonly dilineated: King began as a gospel-drenched, rural-steeped jump bluesman with as much of what would become called soul as pure blues in his voice and guitar phrasing; Rush was one of the three kingpins of the West Side Chicago style (Buddy Guy and Magic Sam were the others), a far more rousing and showman-like blues style than the elders on the South Side had forged for Chess, and leaned as much upon Afro-Caribbean impulses as the rural root for his blues.

But they are telling for what they show of each man. In Albert King's case, it's both a kind of winding up of his earlier jump phase (the reissue of his vintage early album "The Big Blues" should give you a pretty good, more complete overview of that style) and a quick beginning to the pure soul blues that would make him a major blues star a few years after cutting for Chess. In Otis Rush's case, it's a kind of marking time after the thrust of his earlier Cobra sides (his cutting of "All Your Love" for Chess is slightly different from the rippling, more overtly Latinesque version he cut for Cobra, which had such an influence on Eric Clapton among others) and before moving along to the fuller if somewhat inconsistent style with which he went as his career revived in the late 1960s/early 1970s blues revival.

But it's far from throwaway music from either man, and you do get just enough dollops of each man's guitar style in there, both King's weighty, crying howl and Rush's spikily slinky phrasing. For Albert King's fans, especially, this album is a value, since there are not just helpings of his earlier style but a few hints here and there of what was to come when, in due enough course, he moved to Stax and graduated from benign presence to downright legend.

Another masterpiece of blues,this album is one of that for lovers,lovers that must feels to be near the paradise! This is sensational since the beginning until the end.It's impossible to be passive in front of this album.Monumental,one of the bests ever released yet!

I first bought this record as an LP in 1970, not really knowing what exactly I had in my hands. But I've never been without a copy of it in 38 years now, and no matter how much music I collect every few months I find myself thinking "Now where's my copy of Door To Door?" I spent a half hour this morning looking for it because I was in that mood where nothing else was going to punch my blues ticket. Then I thought, "I'm gonna look at some of the reviews and see if there's anyone else out there that loves this thing as much as I do." I'm always happy to learn what you guys and gals have to say about some of my favorite recordings, and you didn't let me down. I learned about where these recordings came from and how Chess handled them, and then of course you all verified what I suspected: There're a whole lot of other Door to Door fans out there! And for good reason.... this thing is a gem with very few equals in the world of blues. Thank you Otis, thank you Albert, and thank you Chess!

Door To Door is not really an "album", per se, but a collection of two different sessions recorded for Chess Records in 1960 (Rush) and 1961 (King). The sessions wouldn't see the light of day until 1970, when King's popularity blossomed enough to prompt Chess to dig into their attic and release this material. That being said, this is truly one of those hidden gems that exists in the music world. It captures both artists early in their career. It's raw, untainted blues from two men trying to make a name for themselves.

I'll admit, I originally purchased this CD because I was an Albert King fan, and while I enjoy his stuff slightly more, Rush's track "So Many Roads" is simply-stated one of the greatest blues efforts in our world . . . period. It's an unbelievable vocal effort mixed with some fine playing. Even today, there are few artists who can match Otis Rush's soul-driven voice, and that's never more apparent than on the six tracks he offers in this collection.

As for Albert King, only five of his eight tracks are actually from the 1961 session. Three tunes (Bad Luck, Merry Way, and Murder) are from his first recording effort as a front-man, done for Parrot Records in 1953 and later purchased by Chess. They're mislabeled, as Bad Luck is actually "Bad Luck Blues" and Merry Way is actually "Be On Your Merry Way." Regardless, they're still great songs. The five remaining King tunes are also tremendous, and only one of them (California) would ever be re-recorded for a different label (Bobbin & King Records - Travelin' To California). I especially like "Howlin' For My Darling," but there's not a bad song in the bunch.

If you haven't yet purchased this CD, my only advice is to GET IT NOW! You will not be disappointed in the least, I promise. Also, if you enjoy Albert King's pre-Stax days, I recommend: "Albert King: The Complete King & Bobbin Recordings." It's more great stuff from the legend before he hit it big with his 1967 classic album ""Born Under A Bad Sign" under the Stax label.

All The Otis Rush tracks are different from his Cobra releases. Great CD. However, get the U.S. version.