Customer Reviews

Louie Bluie: Film Soundtrack Featuring Howard Armstrong

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Documentary filmmaker Terry Zwigoff (director of "Crumb" and "Ghost World") has a major sweet-tooth for the blues, and this awesome little album sure fills the bill. These are wonderfully informal, scraggly performances, quite compelling due to the absolute lack of layered, alienating studio production: this is back-porch picking and singing at its finest. Also, there's some super-raunchy material on here, complete with plenty of coarse swearing and low-down, dirty language... A refreshingly real album.

Wow! The music is great, upbeat and fun. I will enjoy listening again and again and sharing this type of awesome sound with my children.

being one of my favorite films of all times, i do not tire watching the film again and again or listening to the soundtrack over and over. "louie bluie" gives us a glimpse into the life of howard armstrong. however, this is not a selfish portrait. howard shares his rich life (circa 1984) with members of his extended musical family. we get to hear the music of ted bogan, ikey "banjo" robinson, james "yank" rachel,tom armstrong, sister in law elsie loweroy (w/mary shepard), and pick up musicians willie sievers and bob coxe.
what is perhaps my greatest attraction towards this glimpse are the lusty stories and anecdotes from "the boys". on the soundtrack, we get to hear dialogue from the film (as introductions before a tune). you feel like you are in their presence. A FAIR FORWARNING: when the music gets cooking, watch out... you never know what will be around the corner... but by the time the last chords of "darktown strutters ball" drop on you, your jaw will drop to the floor. added bonus tracks include a rare recording of the tennessee chocolate drops (featuring carl martin, bogan, and armstrong), plus some rare recordings from james "yank" rachel that feature sleepy john estes.. a generous few songs recorded in the twenties and thirties (nineteen-hundreds that is).
your life will be enriched by the experience of both the film and soundtrack. (see my review of martin, bogan, and armstrong's "that old gang of mine")