Vietnam Blues: Complete L & R

J.B. Lenoir | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 27, 1995)
• Original Release Date: July 21, 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Evidence
• ASIN: B0000014PZ
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,948 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #26 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Chicago Blues

Track Listings

1. Alabama Blues

2. Mojo Boogie

3. God's Word

4. The Whale Has Swallowed Me

5. Move This Rope

6. I Feel So Good

7. Alabama March

8. Talk to Your Daughter

9. Mississippi Road

10. Good Advice

11. Vietnam Blues

12. I Want to Go

13. Down in Mississippi

14. Slow Down Woman

15. If I Get Lucky

16. Shot on James Meredith

17. Round and Round

18. Voodoo Music

19. Born Dead

20. Leaving Here

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great reissue of the brilliant work of a neglected master, February 3, 2005

By 

Mickey Shipwreck (Island J, Brigstocke Township, N. Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vietnam Blues: Complete L & R (Audio CD)

Most hardcore blues fans know of J.B.Lenoir, but if you're unfamiliar with him then this CD will be a revelation. He is a unique stylist, master guitar player, and profound lyricist. His singing is powerful, idiosyncratic and full of conviction.

The cuts on this disc have been remastered beautifully, are full of depth and clarity. They represent the broad range of Lenoir's music, from biting social and political songs, through rocking dance numbers, to pieces in a more gospel or spiritual vein. Many of the songs foreground Lenoir's signature "African hunch" polyrhythm, a style as unique to J.B. as the "Bo Diddley beat" is to, well, Bo Diddley.

If you can only get one Lenoir CD, get this one. You'll love it and it'll compel you to get everything available.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked Master, October 13, 2002

By 

Brian D. Hackert "Mister B" (Peterborough, NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Vietnam Blues: Complete L & R (Audio CD)

Among the most expressive and creative blues ever, this music also puts J.B. Lenoir into the category of folk singer/songwriter with its solidly unique guitar and deep lyrics. Well played, well sung, extremely original and deeply personal, this captivating CD of two previous LP's features Lenoir solo and accompanied by Chess veteran Fred Below on drums and Willie Dixon on some backing vocals. The combo of acoustic guitar and drums is funky, and the use of what sound like finger cymbals is inspired. Partly rocking, and partly soulful and profound, this CD of the prematurely departed Lenoir is a tremendous legacy from an overlooked and underrated master of the blues craft. This kind of music brings together the purist and the radical, and would fit along side of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson or Ted Hawkins, and shares much in common with a similarly underrated master of blues today, Jimmy Johnson. You gotta hear it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece - nothing else in blues quite like this, October 13, 2006

By 

Steven R. Sims "steve from oz" (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vietnam Blues: Complete L & R (Audio CD)

I've just bought this CD for the 4th time - along with Jack Dupree's "Blues From The Gutter", it's the one I give away when I really want to give, and turn someone on to the blues.

It contains JBs last 2 albums before his untimely death in 1967, and represents the full flowering of his groundbreaking African Hunch style. JB was a popular Chicago electric blues musician who gradually evolved a new acoustic sound - syncretising a lot of what had come before, from gritty Delta guitar to barrelhouse-piano style syncopation, and more than a touch of gospel - but sounding fresh and modern; he was moving forwards not back. Sadly this style seems to have died with him; the world has not caught up yet.

All tracks have JB on acoustic guitar and vocals (those words hardly doing justice to what he does with them); many with Freddie Below on drums (inventor of Rock & Roll no matter what anyone else says); and a few with Willie Dixon's atmospheric growling on backup vocal (Willie also produced).

There's nothing else quite like this, though JB's 50's and early 60's Chicago recordings gave some hints of what was to come (a couple of his 50's hits are reworked here). The guitar work is simple yet complex, highly syncopated; the voice a flexible instrument, and the songs are just extraordinary - power and subtlety, tears and laughter, protest and acceptance, folk tales and modern living.

I can't really explain it in words, just listen to some of the samples, bearing in mind the the whole experience is so much more so - at least hear "Alabama", "Mojo Boogie", "Move This Rope", "I Feel So Good", "Good Advice", "Vietnam", "Down In Mississippi", "Voodoo Music", and especially "Born Dead" and "Feelin' Good" ... heck, just get the album! What a trip it is - hearing this for the first time is like hearing Robert Johnson for the first time...