Houndog

Houndog | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 16, 1999)
• Original Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000I5XX
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,681 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

A collaboration between Los Lobos/Latin Playboys linchpin David Hidalgo (and what a year he had!) and vocalist Mike Halby, this self-titled debut is basically a blues album--albeit one that's a universe and several decades removed from the routine fare that dominates the blues market. Hidalgo is one of the most inspired musicians working today, and his foil possesses otherworldly pipes. --Steven Stolder

Amazon.com

This collaboration between Los Lobos's multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers/Canned Heat vocal vet Mike Halby strips off the varnish that adorns much modern blues revivalism, cutting through to a murky, minimalist framework that recalls the Delta and Chicago's South Side without being a slave to either. The tracks here offer up often dirge-like grooves so thick and lugubrious that, if this were a vinyl disc, one might check the turntable's speed. Against Hidalgo's languid, skeletal riffs and shuffles, Halby drawls and moans his way through eight originals and the collection's only cover, Junior Parker's "Change My Style," with a voice so angst-ridden and surreal, it reportedly prompted Bonnie Raitt to comment, "This is great! But is he gonna be all right?" Dub on some crackling, ticks, and pops, and Houndog would make a pretty convincing replication of four and a half great lost blues 78s. --Jerry McCulley

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the sound of heroin, November 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Houndog (Audio CD)

I'd be willing to check out just about anything that Tommy Waits recommended, but I stumbled upon this one with only the Lobos connection. Now my ears are pleased, and I cannot get enough of this album. Captures the blues grit in a way that has been forgotten these days as blues get commercial. Musical drugs. Serve with whiskey.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars too much cough syrup can be a good thing, November 27, 1999

By 

FlametopFred (hiding under desk, shhh!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Houndog (Audio CD)

this is the sound of:

walking down a dirt road. a dry, dry dusty dirt road. there is no water to drink. it is august and hotter than august should be. and dry. you swallow and it hurts. you sweat and your head hurts. the dry heat pounds.

so you find this old 45rpm record at the side of the road. in the dust. the dry dry dust.

you take the 45 with you and you come home and go inside your shack. you put the 45 on your turntable. maybe not all the dust is blown off the record. but your turntable is broken and only plays back the 45 at 16rpm, maybe 33rpm now and again.

that is the sound of this Houndog record, and I love it. love it dry like that

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Music to Read Bukowski By, December 4, 2002

By 

Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Houndog (Audio CD)

Imagine if you combined the low-down, gritty, soulfullness of Tom Waits, the electric fiddle of Papa John Creech, some excellent bottleneck and slide guitar with some dark-alley, 2AM lyrics? The answer: Mike Halby and David Hidalgo's homage to weltanschmerz, Houndog. Houndog really is bare-bones blues, as unpretentious and honest as it gets. Again, like Waits, the musicians sound as if they are on the tail end of a three day heavy binge, but can muster just enough strength for one more song. This will definitely not appeal to all Hidalgo fans (not your daddy's Los Lobos fare here). With Waits afficianadoes, however, it is can't miss. It is definitely the type music listened to late at night. In fact, the later the better. Will probably move to five stars after I give it a few more listens.