Customer Reviews

Scratch 1: Rare & Unissued

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Slim Harpo was certainly one of the great masters of the Blues. Growing up in Louisiana, Harpo played guitar with harmonica on a neckbrace to augment his singing. His style, commonly refered to as "Swamp Blues" has a certain loping feel to it. Over the years many of Harpo's songs, including "Scratch My Back", "Rainin' In My Heart" and "King Bee" have become Blues standards.

This CD is not a regular album or a greatest hits package. It contains Harpo's B sides, alternate takes and some live recordings. I'd suggest that you start with a greatest hits if you want a taste of what Slim Harpo was all about, then graduate to this one. It's a fine CD and well worth adding to your collection. The recordings are not as polished as his masters, but still a good listen, none the less.

Props go out to Slim's fantastic guitarist, Gabriel "Guitar Gable" Perrodin, every bit as interesting in chops as Jimmy Reed sideman, Eddy Taylor. However, the songs showcase the best harp south of Little Walter (Chicago), but on a more accessible level much as Jimmy Reed's blues songs were.

This collection provides live, raw outtakes centered on a slow, grooving rhythm section. These outtakes leave out a solo or two but pure blues remains simple enough for any summer blues driving excersion.

In some ways preferable to "The Excello Singles Anthology" which sticks to the album cuts.