Mama Says I'm Crazy

Fred McDowell, Johnny Woods | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 12, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fat Possum Records
• ASIN: B00006SFBR
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,908 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #27 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Delta Blues

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Of The Great Mississippi Archives..., March 6, 2004

By 

Brett Lemke (www.maximumink.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mama Says I'm Crazy (Audio CD)

This session was recorded in 1965 at George Mitchell's house. Mitchell recorded over 70 hours of tapes during the 60's and 70 of Mississippi Fred and several others. Mama Says I'm Crazy marks the first of a series of sessions Fat Possum plans to release from the Mitchell Archive over the next several years. It's relaxed guitar-and-harmonica hill-country blues, which is part of a dying legacy of musicians. Now that the music is finally getting some attention, the king of Hill-country is finally getting the attention he deserved. He has greatly influenced artists such as T-Model Ford, R. L. Burnside, Solomon Burke, and Junior Kimbrough, and remains the forerunner for the genre. It's eleven soul-wrenching tracks of twelve-bar that will uncontrollably cause you to tap along with the beat. Johnny's harmonica never misses a beat, as he aggressively intertwines with Fred's sliding guitar licks. It's stripped-down and acoustic, and gives you the feeling that you're hitchhiking across the American south with a suitcase in your hand. Mississippi Fred McDowell is essential listening for any aficionado of the blues, and Fat Possum Records is making it possible for blues-lovers everywhere.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't analyze it., December 3, 2005

By 

Patrick Alexander (Las Cruces, New Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mama Says I'm Crazy (Audio CD)

If you listen to this trying to figure out if it's good, you've missed the point. I did that on my first couple listens and it sounded like a disjointed mess mixing equal parts repetition and uncoordination. Along with all that, though, is some of the best music I've ever heard.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ferocious Mississippi blues.The Real Thing !!!, February 25, 2004

By 

JEAN-MARIE JUIF (BESANCON France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mama Says I'm Crazy (Audio CD)

Woooow!!! Recorded 1967 in Como,Ms,here is a real "live" recording by the immense Mississippi Fred McDowell (Jan 12,1904-Jul 3,1972), a true giant of the country blues,and surely one of the best ones.The complicity between McDowell and harp player Johnny Woods is amazing,even if they didn't play together since 8 years at the time of this session.Of course,this record isn't for everybody's ears.If your favorite "blues" musicians are Duke Robillard,Poppa Chubby or Lucky Peterson,then you'll sure have some troubles listening to this music.Here is the real thing,a real,earthy,down home blues;an incredibely fascinating music,an even hypnotic one,recorded in some shack,down in Como, 37 years ago.McDowell is at his most ferocious playing here.He's an atypical blues artist:born at the beginning of the century,he waited until beeing over 60 to start a recording carreer.For some twenty years,he's one of my favorite blues players and singers,with Charley Patton,Bukka White,John Hurt,Jack Owens,Skip James,Henry Townsend and of course Robert Johnson;and,of course also,Robert Pete Williams.
This "field" recording may be Fred McDowell's most authentic album;Johnny Woods' harp playing,which is very present,gives me the same feeling as Big Boy Spires' harp playing with Jack Owens;the empathy between these two legends of Mississippi blues is amazing.Of course,the music isn't sweet and polite;this is the devil's music,and some rough one.This is music at its most violent,urgent,and even vital;here is a very very great blues record,an essential one;it will drive you into McDowell's african,fascinating blues;McDowell's hard swinging,haunting rhythms are at their best.This guy had a magical right hand !!!
As the next blues revival comes,with these movies by Wenders,Scorsese,Eastwood (and I guess his movie will be the best one)and others,I think the time is coming to forget Peterson,Chubby,and many others (including some Fat Possum so called "artists"),and to discover the real founders of the blues (and there are dozens of incredibely talented guys).
Well,anyway,you can listen to what and who you want;but here is a really very important blues album,and it would be a terrible mistake to miss it.