Blues Harp

This rare December 1953 session was unusual for Terry in that his guitar accompanist was not Brownie McGhee, but Alec Seward, who had previously recorded as Guitar Slim in a duo with "Fat Boy" Hayes" (aka Jelly Belly). It's unusual only in the personnel, however. It sounds like typical Sonny Terry, as he works his way through original material, including standards like "John Henry" and other blues tunes like "In the Evening" (the song that would provide much of the basis for Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain"). You'd have to say that it's usually more interesting to hear Terry with his longtime partner McGhee than it is to hear him with Seward, but it's not terribly different. The trademark vocal and harmonica whoops, and hollers are in gear and running throughout the album, sometimes to exhilarating effect, as on the rapid "The Fox Chase (aka "Hound Dog Holler")"…

Homesick James was an American blues musician known for his mastery of the slide guitar. He worked with his cousin, Elmore James, and with Sonny Boy Williamson II. The year of his birth is uncertain. He stated that he was born in 1905, 1910, or 1914, while his union records give 1924. His actual birth name has given as James Williamson or John Henderson. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. He may have first recorded for RCA Victor in 1937, but this is also unconfirmed, and by 1938 may have begun playing electric guitar. His first known recordings were in 1952 for Chance Records, recording the tracks "Lonesome Ole Train" and "Homesick", which gave him his stage name.

There s nothing to compare to the sound of an amplified Hohner Marine Band harmonica in the hands (and mouth) of a master like Little Walter, Walter Horton, Snooky Pryor or Sonny Boy Williamson. All of them were just as adept with the unamplified specimen but the addition of electricity takes this miniscule instrument into a different realm. Many musicians heard here were disciples in one way or another of John Lee Williamson (the original Sonny Boy), who played his harp through a microphone in clubs but never recorded that way. The list of these men is a long one, including Billy Boy Arnold, Walter Mitchell, Doctor Ross, Forrest City Joe and Robert Richard, while Little Walter influenced younger men like Junior Wells, Jerry McCain, James Cotton and George Smith…

Blues harp maestro James Cotton was 77 at the time of this album's release. He can barely sing anymore, and the years of playing and touring have left his voice a hoarse croak, but make no mistake, he can still play the harp, and his stunning, overdriven blasts on the instrument are as powerful and as immediate as ever. He's the living embodiment of the Chicago blues, and one of the genre's last surviving founders of it, having mentored with the great Sonny Boy Williamson, and he recorded, played, and toured with Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, cutting his first sides at the age of 19 for Chess Records. He's done this a long time, and as this delightful, joyous, stomping, and vibrant set shows, he doesn't need to sing to command the stage…

The actual feeling you are listening to a Bluesman who absorbed nickname "Boogie" comes with an all-acoustic title song although first two swampy cuts deserve an equal attention. Further "Tumblin' In The Sea" is an instrumental with harp and keyboards dominating, "Long Arm Of The Law" is why we love Jerry McCain, then is "(She Might Sell My) Teddy Bear" and it goes like it should go: Blues, only Blues and nothin' but the Blues with Jerry McCain speaking through his harp on acoustic again "Lucy Pearl". "I Ain't Got Time" is a pearl both in terms of music/performance and lyrics. Slow blues "Just A Little Bit" with super class harp solo, precedes closing track "I Want to Be Your Santa Claus" with excellent harp work again.