Wicked Grin

John Hammond, Albert Hammond Jr. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000059T5O
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,278 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Pointblank Records, 7243 8 50764 2 8, 2001 13 Track

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BLUE LIGHT THROUGH OLD WINDOWS, April 18, 2001

By 

"james_robb" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wicked Grin (Audio CD)

The vault of Tom Waits' back-catalogue has been smashed open, 13 songs wrenched from it, beaten within an inch of their lives and brought, screaming, into the light.

With the help of a gloriously raw production by Waits himself, John Hammond has spawned the blues album of this, or any other year.

13 tracks of gravel, needles, broken glass, smoke and sweat distilled by the deep velvet growl of Hammond, who has never sounded better, he was born for this.

Can't get the CD off the player. One of those albums that makes you close your eyes, grit your teeth, grimace and crank the amp up one notch louder. Tough to pick out a favourite.....maybe Heartattack & Vine or Clap Hands. Only shame is that it will be filed under 'John Hammond/Blues' which may deprive a larger audience of a true gem.

BUY IT, BEG IT, BORROW IT, STEAL IT....BEFORE IT LEAVES TOWN ON THE 2.19

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Blues Album in Years!, October 5, 2001

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wicked Grin (Audio CD)

This is one of the best blues albums of the past 20+ years, combining John Hammond's gutty vocals and guitar with the quirky settings of producer Tom Waits (who also wrote or co-wrote all but one of the songs). It's a dirty concoction of mean streets and gutted dreams, yet elevated by the power and redemption of the blues.

The song most emblematic of the album's superiority is Track 2, "Heart Attack and Vine." This is an almost unbelievable recreation of Muddy waters' Chicago blues, thick with deep, raw, Boomy guitars and Hammond's Louisiana vocal accents. Wonderful lyrics, and an incredible sound; it has the ambience of a live set... somewhere in Chicago 45 years ago! It also features great work on the Hammond organ by Augie Meyers. I haven't heard anything like this in years.

Tracks 1 and 3 also merit special praise. Hammond's quick and cutting riffs on "2:19", coupled with Larry Taylor's thundering bass is head-shaking stuff. His playing somehow combines the power of electronic sound with the intimacy and personal touches of acoustic.

Track 3, "Clap Hands" fills a blues groove with the sinister spirit of a church with secrets, due, in large part, to Charlie Musselwhite's sinewy harmonica brewing darkly underneath. (It's so good to hear Musselwhite and his buzzsaw sound reminiscent of James Cotton.) The other songs take various blues routes and are uniformly excellent, including the John Lee Hooker flavor of "16 Shells...," Hammond's steel guitar on the country blues " Buzz Fledderjohn," the soulful "Shore Leave," and Musselwhite on "Big Black Mariah" Of special note is the gentle "Fannin Street," a folk-songish acoutic piece which, for some reason, reminded me of some of Traffic's (rock group) acoustic work.

There are annoying too-kewl liner "notes' by T. Bone Burnett, but no matter: This is a must have for all blues lovers.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ride, Johnny Ride!, March 17, 2001

By 

John E. Bloner Jr. "gallanipper" (Big Shoe, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wicked Grin (Audio CD)

Oh, man! I've been waiting for this disc for nearly a decade. Back in 1992, Tom Waits gave John Hammond a song, "No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby," which Hammond put on his "Got Love If You Want It" record. It's been one of my favorite tracks ever since. On "Wicked Grin," Hammond visits Waits' neighborhood--a cold, dark, rainy place, somewhere in the Midwest, where the trains clatter nearby all night long--and makes himself right at home. He runs a comb through his pompadour and lets his freak flag fly on a dozen Waits' tunes and one tasty, groovin', hand-clapped gospel song, in which ol' Tom himself joins in on a verse. Along for the ride are Stephen Hodges on drums and percussion; Larry Taylor on bass; Charlie Musselwhite on harp; and Augie Meyers on keyboards and accordion. Meyers' music-making really shakes this record. His Hammond organ slinks behind the guitar fuzz of "Heartattack and Vine." On "Shore Leave," he lays down a carny-style Vox organ, while Hammond croons about squeezing all the life out of a two-day pass at a moonlit Chinatown fair. By the time, the record reaches "Murder In The Red Barn," Meyers is chilling with plum-perfect notes on an upright piano. I just hope I don't need to wait another nine years for Marla Hammond and Kathleen Brennan to bring Tom and John (and Augie, too!) together again. I'm already assembling a wish list of songs for their next record. I can't wait to hear John walk Spanish down the hall, fall in love with a Gun Street girl or pull on Trouble's braids. Until then, I've got a wicked grin, too, listening to Hammond and Waits on this shakin' disc.