Sonny Son

These are Landreth's earliest known recordings, half of them made in a single afternoon 1973 when he was just 22 years old, the other half recorded in 1977. They display Landreth in the wine of his youth, looking outward for inspiration, sounding more generally Southern than uniquely Louisianan. If you are seeking an album of Louisiana music, I suggest you look elsewhere. But if it is the long-lost first album of an acknowledged slide guitar king you seek, perhaps the finest of his generation, look no further. It is in your hands.

The 2010 issue of Mississippi Blues by Sonny Landreth on the Fuel 2000 imprint is not a new album, nor is it a representative compilation of his oeuvre. In fact, the set is a complete repackage of the album entitled The Crazy Cajun Recordings originally issued on CD by Great Britain’s Edsel in 1999. The material dates from 1973 and 1977, recorded with the famed Huey P. Meaux (aka the Crazy Cajun) when he wasn’t touring with Clifton Chenier as part of his Red Hot Louisiana Band. These 20 tracks range from Landreth’s Lafayette, LA-styled take on the acoustic Delta blues solo and with a band that included a mandolin player, an electric bassist, and a drummer to his early electric experiments playing a meld of Cajun-flavored soul, rock, and R&B. The electric slide guitar fury evidenced on his own records from the 1980s onward is all but absent here, but the acoustic slide work is particularly plentiful – check his reading of “I Know You Rider,” “Lazy Boy,” and the stomping “Prodigal Son”.

Live effort by Little Sonny with his son on guitar (by then the largest audience they have ever played, as said on an interview in this album). The two interviews and three singles, specially The Creeper (a must for harp players later re-recorded by Mark Hummel) add a little flavor on top as nice and rare extras.

The Stax empire wasn't exactly renowned for its legion of blues harpists, but Little Sonny found the Memphis firm quite an agreeable home during the early '70s (he even appeared in the label's grandiose concert film, Wattstax, albeit very briefly).
Little Sonny, whose birth name is Aaron Willis, is a product of Detroit's blues scene. He moved to the Motor City in 1953 after growing up on his dad's farm in Alabama (his mom gave him his nickname). When Little Sonny wasn't working local haunts with John Lee Hooker, Eddie Burns, Eddie Kirkland, Baby Boy Warren, or Washboard Willie (who gave him his first paying gig), he was snapping photos of the patrons for half a buck a snap…

Son Seals 1991 Alligator release "Living In The Danger Zone" is arguably one of Seal's finest studio releases to date. His best live performances being "Live and Burning" and "Spontaneous Combustion". Like the live disc's, Danger Zone features and abundance of gritty vocals and piercing guitar solo's in the style of Albert King. The songs on the disc range from the humorous "Frigidaire Woman" to the slow blues number "Danger Zone" to the funky "Bad Axe" to a ballad like "My Life". Seal's is a natural for the blues. He was born in Osceola Arkansas and, as a child, spent much of his time in his dad's juke joint surrounded by the likes of Albert King, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk. About four years after recording this CD his wife shot him in the face. He would survive that trauma only to later have his leg amputated due to complications from diabetes. As the saying goes, you got to live the blues to play the blues.

One of Son Seals's finest collections, studded with vicious performances ranging from covers of Eddie Vinson's "Person to Person" and Little Sonny's "Going Home (Where Women Got Meat on Their Bones)" to his own "Can't Stand to See Her Cry" and swaggering "Cold Blood." Top-drawer Windy City studio musicians lay down skin-tight grooves throughout.

Voyages et Rêves est le premier album d’un jeune batteur/percussionniste guadeloupéen au touché recherché et aux visions captivantes. Elevé dans la tradition du gwo-ka par son père, fondateur du groupe Gwakasonné et passeur de ce genre emblématique de la Guadeloupe, Sonny a accompagné aussi bien les cadors de son île (Tanya St-Val) que les ténors du jazz mondial (David Murray, Reggie Washington…).