"chicago 2002"

b. Alex Randall, 3 August 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Easy Baby is an accomplished blues singer/harmonica player who was already involved in the west Memphis blues scene before he moved to Chicago in 1956, where he worked with local groups and led his own band for a time. He gave up music for many years, then began singing and playing again in the mid-70s. You can listen to his fine singin' and harp playing on this CD. There are great sidemen like Johnny B. Moore, Allan Batts, Tim Taylor & Sam Lay! Great traditional Chicago Blues!

Magic Slim (Morris Holt) is best known for carrying on the Windy City tradition of back-to-the-basics blues bar bands, blasting out a quintessential sound that the music's legends would appreciate and that its newest fans can still enjoy. With Blue Magic, Holt and the Teardrops take a few steps outside their home turf for a New York City session with several surprises. Although most of the material is Holt's, the new album features several conspicuous exceptions, such as an intriguing attempt at country legend Merle Haggard's "I Started Loving You Again." But it's producer Popa Chubby's updating of the Bobby Rush gem "Chickenheads," popularized by Holt's fellow Chicago stalwart Mighty Joe Young, that is the most adventurous experiment. With the band sitting out, Popa Chubby takes over all the rhythm duties and adds sampled loops to the mix.

The various bands led by harmonica player and singer George "Mojo" Buford hark back to the classic Chicago blues sounds of the early '60s. Among harmonica players, Buford has the distinction of being the only musician to have played with various bands led by the late Muddy Waters in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. (Waters died in April 1981.) Buford left Mississippi for Memphis in his teens and honed his chops around Memphis before heading to Chicago in 1952. He began playing with Waters in Chicago in the late '50s, but by 1962 Buford relocated to Minneapolis, where he recorded several obscure albums for the Vernon and Folk-Art labels. He rejoined Waters' band in 1967 for a full year and then toured with him again in the early '70s, after harmonica player Jerry Portnoy left to form the Legendary Blues Band…

Tommy McClennan would work in the cotton fields by day and in the evenings he would play on the streets of Greenwood, MS. Later he worked in juke joints and for dance parties, playing both the guitar and the piano. McClennan was a small man, standing just 4 feet 10, but this in no way negated the powerful voice that he possessed. His guitar playing is typical of the Mississippi style; simple, dominant, solid rhythms from the bass end with dashes of spikey treble riffs interjected between the vocal choruses. His voice was rough, hoarse and loud. Loud enough to be heard over the hubbub in a Mississippi juke joint on a Saturday night. Honey Boy Edwards tells of Tommy’s habit of standing in front of a mirror talking to himself…