Customer Reviews

Memphis Wham!

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Back in 1963 when Eric Clapton was learning to play the guitar and Joe Cocker's voice was still changing. Lonnie Mack and his band created the standard for blues-rock music with recording of The Wham of That Memphis Man.

This album got lost in the British invasion when it was first released in 1964. While the English bands were taking their names from blues songs and attempting to play the blues, this album was the real thing. Lonnie and this band nailed the sound that Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, Delaney & Bonnie, ect... would use years later, with songs like I'll Keep You Happy, Satisfied, and Baby What's Wrong. The music sounds as fresh today as it did back then, due to spontaneous sound and the musicians enjoying themselves. Listen to Where There's a Will There's a Way and notice Lonnie doesn't know all the lyrics and improvises with soulful singing. So soulful the song was even got a lot of airplay on black radio stations until they discovered he was white. I'm sure there wasn't a very many retakes on these recordings, where the feel is lost with each retake. Even though they might have been improvising at times, this band was tight, just listening to Wham and Why, still amazes me.

Elektra records did a marketing blunder in the early 70's when they reissued this with the lame title For Collectors Only. Elektra continued to impress me when they missed the opportunity to reissue it when Stevie Ray Vaugh was raving about the album in interviews. Thanks to Ace's excellent release we get not only the legendary release of The Wham of That Memphis Man plus 13 additional killer tracks, like Farther on Up The Road, Chicken Pickin', Say Something Nice To Me, Oh, I Apologize, ect...

Lonnie Mack has earned the right to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the recording of The Wham of That Memphis Man.

Finnally! I have been waiting since the advent of CDs for the rerelease of one of my favorite albums on CD. I discovered Lonnie and this album in 1965 and it became a constant companion and a great teacher of guitar. I continue to be astounded that this album was 1) Not available 2) Not known. It should be in the Blues Hall of Fame. Lonnie Mack had blues guitar and singing sewed up. No other white man could come near him. Listen to the immortal guitar solos on "Baby What's Wrong." Listen to the singing on "Why" and "Where there is a Will". Yes gospel tunes, originally sung by Archie Brownlee and the Mississippi Blind Boys.

When I started playing guitar in the 60s in Cincinnati, Lonnie Mack's home base, everybody in the immediate (and not so immediate) area tried to play like Lonnie. But no one could touch him. He is a true original and a consumate perfectionist. I've seen Lonnie Mack live a dozen times and never heard a miscue. And to see him live will make your hair stand on end. Sheer power. Sheer excellence. I don't know if his touring days are over, but I will say that the CD version of his seminal album, so long overdue, will show that he broke new ground in popular music. In 1963, when everyone was grooving to the Beach Boys, here came WHAM! WOW!... What a relief! His synthesis of blues, rock, gospel, and a touch of country was so refreshing and so original that I don't think people were ready for such a powerful album. He is probably one of the most overlooked guitarists in history. If you are a guitarist, a blues fan, or just a music lover, this is one CD you cannot do without.

This CD should have come out years ago! But better late than never! It includes the 2 title hits plus "Lonnie on the Move" (under its "Love Light" title) and all tracks from the original Fraternity LP, plus a handful of tracks that were never released, and rare single tracks like "Tension (I + II)"

This is the album that opened the door to blues guitar for me when I was a 12 year old kid from the south side of Chicago. From the energy packed intro to Wham to the rocking version of Memphis, Lonnie Mack and his Flying V guitar brought a whole new sound to the mid 60's guitar table, just as Clapton would later do with Bluesbreakers.
One of the most under rated, unknown guitarists, Mack played a unique style using a Gibson Flying V and a capo. His organ vibrato amp added to the mysterious but driving blues sound coming off of this album.
I listened to it day and night, up and down inside and out. It was the bible as far as I was concerned and it helped lead the way to where I am today as a player.
By all means, get this historic album and discover a guitarist who we all idolized on the south side of Chicago in the early 60's. Lonnie Mack..wow, what a monster!!!
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Just to say that over here in the UK, Lonnie had - and still has - a faithful following. His '63 recording of 'Memphis' introduced him to us, followed by 'Wham' and the brilliant 'Susie Q'. I agree with other reviewers - it's taken too long to get his catalogue onto CD (although I must admit that some of the most recent compilations contain some pretty dire tracks). Lonnie is a guitar legend for anyone who loves low-down blues guitar and heartfelt singing. Check out his website for recordings that aren't generally available. Here's to the man - rank him alongside Roy Buchanan as an innovator and hero. Oh - and DO buy this CD, it's superb.

Although first inspired by Elvis Presley, Lonnie Mack's originality emerged almost as soon as he bought his first Gibson Flying V guitar at the precocious age of 17, and blues-influenced rock and roll has never been the same, if, in fact, it ever existed prior to this debut. The driving beat of his amazingly deft guitar is still awe-inspiring 45 years after its initial release, and this CD sounds almost as fresh in 2008 as it was no doubt revolutionary back in 1963.

I admit that I myself am sometimes slow on the intake. I first heard the name Lonnie Mack because I'd often heard Tracy Nelson, my favorite vocalist and the lead singer of the late-60's blues-rock band Mother Earth, remark that she'd first heard the song Satisfied on Lonnie Mack's debut album. Mother Earth not only covered the song on their third Mercury release in 1970, they had even titled the album Satisfied, in apparent deference to Lonnie Mack's awesome talent. I was already familiar with the 1950 recording of Satisfied by Country-Gospel legend Martha Carson, and I suspect that the lead guitar of a very young Chet Atkins on that record is what compelled Lonnie Mack to record his own version of Satisfied for his debut album. While recently doing research for a review I was writing on Mother Earth's Satisfied album, it suddenly struck me that if my favorite singer and her band had named one of their earliest and most popular efforts after a song covered by Lonnie Mack, the least I should do is check him out. Although I was intrigued by Tracy Nelson's ringing endorsement, the preponderance of five-star reviews for this CD, many written by guitar players, was the deal-clincher that made me decide to acquire this release.

As soon as I'd heard the first few tracks, I knew Lonnie Mack was an original. Although lauded for his brilliant guitar work (and I admit he is one heck of an awesome guitarist) the album also contains a dozen thrilling vocals in his inimitable, soulful voice. Indeed, Tracy Nelson herself, whose eclectic taste I have always revered, once confided in me that she was even more enamored of Lonnie Mack's smooth vocals that she was of his dynamic guitar. Although many of Ms. Nelson's albums have included covers of songs previously recorded by artists she admires, she usually places her own stamp on such endeavors, and her vocals seldom invoke memories of the original. Upon hearing Lonnie Mack's version of Satisfied, I was floored to realize that Mother Earth had not only copied Mr. Mack's arrangement, Tracy Nelson had paid Mr. Mack the exquisite compliment of basing her own throbbing vocal directly on his, something I had never seen her do with any other cover she'd undertaken. It was then that the magnitude of Mr. Mack's influence and importance really began to sink in.

If this connection to my favorite singer was the catalyst for my acquisition of Memphis Wham!, it was hardly the end-all be-all that I thought it might turn out to be. Lonnie Mack's instrumental renditions of Suzie Q, The Bounce, Down and Out (in one word - WOW!), Memphis and Wham were all revelations almost 50 years after the fact, but his heartfelt vocals on I'll Keep You Happy, Where There's a Will There's a Way, Baby What's Wrong, and Down in the Dumps (not to mention the aforementioned Satisfied) instantly propelled this album to a top favorite spot in my fairly large and somewhat diverse music collection. His aching cover of Why is (so far) my favorite vocal track, in an album where it's perplexingly difficult to choose if the vocals outshine the instrumentals, or vice versa. And I could be wrong, but stylistically, if Baby What's Wrong was not also a strong influence on the early output of Mother Earth, I will shake salt on my favorite fedora and chow down. It isn't every day that you discover that you've overlooked a major inspiration of one of your favorite bands, but I intend to make up for lost time by adding Memphis Wham to my CD rotation until I can conjure up every lick and lyric in my mind's ear at will, and I don't expect that will take long at all. Lonnie Mack is a true original, as well as an important icon in the world of blues-rock guitar. I was highly impressed on my first listen, and I thoroughly expect Memphis Wham! to become an oft-listened-to staple and a cornerstone of my music collection. Many of the bonus tracks are as awesome as the classic cuts that make up the primary focus of this CD, and on the whole, this compilation makes for an enormously satisfying listen. Highly recommended.

Lonnie Mack is practically hometown. He is Aurora IN, I am Madison. First parkin'lot picked with him at bluegrass festival in the 1970's- own most of his records and saw him most lately at Carrollton Ky blues festival. Now I am a 67 yr old great grandmother, driving 5 yr old gr grandson to school and guess who, of all the tapes and CD's I own, does he request?. If it ain't Lonnie Mack, he protests! He loves that 50's=60's and Memphis beat and so do I. (His singing "Cocaine Blues" in Headstart class does not go over too well, but he knows what he likes.) I am ordering Memphis Wham for Lonnie's top fan, Alexander, for Christmas!

The Saxophone Player on Track 11 "Down in the Dumps" was my Uncle Don Henry. :) He also toured with Conway Twitty playing the Sax and did alot of uncredited sax work for other famous musicians.

This is a fabulous CD which contains many of Lonnie's rocking hits and would be a great addition to anybody's 50/60's collection. Highly recommended.