Customer Reviews

One Believer

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I know his voice has been slammed, the production has been slammed, and just about every other nitpicky thing you can think of has been said about this album..... I don't care. This is one of my all time favorite albums....EVER!!
His voice is not for everyone, but if you like the hoodoo, voodoo, low rumbling , primal growl of a man made of mud, this album is for you.
The guy used to play a '58 Gibson Jumbo with a single coil pickup in the soundhole, it sounded awesome.
He played with heart and conviction. There's not a bum cut on any of his three releases, but since this was the first I bought, it's my favorite.

I saw him open for Buddy Guy when this album was released. I had never heard of him before, but the next day I went to every record store in two towns trying to find this album. No one had it in stock because everyone else who was at the show had beaten me to the store and bought the last copies. So, critics be darned, just buy the album already.......

Having read some of the other reviews here I am not sure about all of the controversy around JC's albums - the only thing that I personally can add is to let all of you now that this CD is one of my all time favorite blues albums - and close behind One Believer is JC's other album Howling Mercy - both of these albums are dark and very intense - my favorite tracks on this album are 'Devil in my closet' and 'Voodoo Edge'. If you like blues you will like this album - I highly recommend it.

Not much can be said. This cd has to be listened to, not discussed.
In my opinion, it is JC's best collection of songs. It is definitely one of the favourite cds I own (along with Bitches Brew and Foreign Affair) and I LOVE it.
A Man & His Blues
Howlin' Mercy

Way back just after this CD was released, I turned up with my girlfriend at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall to see Buddy Guy over in Scotland on tour. Well we saw Buddy and he was OK but on the trip home all my girlfriend and I could talk about was the support act;Mr John Campbell. He remains to this day the only support act I've seen in this country who had to come back to the stage and do an encore. Not because he expected to but because of the prolonged noise from the crowd at the end of his set. This album is, I believe, the best of the 3 although Howlin' Mercy runs it close. The title track makes me want to play air guitar every time I hear it (yes I know, sad) and I defy anybody to sit still during 'I couldn't do nothin'' My favourite track though is Wild Streak. Play it loud in the car on your way to work and you're set for the day. I can honestly say that there isn't a bad track on the CD. If aliens were to land on Earth and ask me to give them one Blues CD it would have to be this one. Had John Campbell not died tragically soon after Howlin Mercy was released he would have gone on to be a huge Blues star. I count myself lucky to have seen his live show. Buy this album now and stop thinking about it. Like one of the other reviewers says. Play it LOUD and play it in the dark. Enjoy!

This disc will scare the pants off of you. Where did this guy get his voice. Tiny Coffins is a "happy" song for him... bottom line is that you won't hear this on the radio and that is because it would shake up too many people. Play it loud and in the dark, I dare you.

I've always been a metal head, never heard much bluesy stuff but my dad turned me on to John Campbell in the early nineties and Ive been a fan ever since, great cd. Howlin Mercy is also excellent.

I heard this cd on Radio Free Europe, broadcast by Andrei Voiculescu. A great one. One of my favourites CDs, one of my favourites artists. I broadcasted the whole CD at "Musica Magica", my musical program on Radio CD Cluj, 92.8 fm.

I know his voice has been slammed, the production has been slammed, and just about every other nitpicky thing you can think of has been said about this album..... I don't care. This is one of my all time favorite albums....EVER!!
His voice is not for everyone, but if you like the hoodoo, voodoo, low rumbling , primal growl of a man made of mud, this album is for you.
The guy used to play a '58 Gibson Jumbo with a single coil pickup in the soundhole, it sounded awesome.
He played with heart and conviction. There's not a bum cut on any of his three releases, but since this was the first I bought, it's my favorite.

I saw him open for Buddy Guy when this album was released. I had never heard of him before, but the next day I went to every record store in two towns trying to find this album. No one had it in stock because everyone else who was at the show had beaten me to the store and bought the last copies. So, critics be darned, just buy the album already.......

While my prefered JC track is Saddle Up My Pony on Howlin Mercy, One Believer is the first JC album you should get. This album is perfect and remains a true gem in my collection. Do yourself a favor and get both of them. Because both are monuments.

This is the real deal, folks. John had the chops, the attitude, and the voice. He studied the legends and then made his own thing. The songs on this album, especially the outro of the title track, capture that raw hurt few others can touch. Yeah, it's dark and more than a little sad. It's the blues.

I wish someone like Rhino would release this guy's albums as a box set because they need to be heard. I have no doubt that if John had lived, he would have moved to that next level.