Fat Possum: Memphis Rent Party - Soundtrack to Robert Gordon's Book - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review Memphis Rent Party, the soundtrack to Robert Gordon's 6th book, and it's excellent. Opening with a ragged but remarkable rendition of Guy Clark's Desparados Waiting On A Train by Jerry McGill. Backed by Mud Boy and the Neutrons, this is subtly terrific with excellent piano and slide work under McGill's haunting vocals.  On Chevrolet Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas exchanging lead vocals and playing fife vs slide backed by snappy marching like snare drums and powerful bass drums strokes.  Junior Kimbrough is up next with his trademark sound on All Night Long, recorded in Kimbrough's living room in the middle of a cotton field in 1986. Very cool. Another unmistakable sound is the sound of Furry Lewis' vocals with his own slide guitar on Why Don't You Come Home Blues, recorded in his living room in the 60's. How does it get any better than this? The surprise track for me was Calvin Newborn on Frame for the Blues, a sophisticated jazzy blues entry. Newborn's blues guitar phrasing is subtle but innovative coupled with flute and a solid backing. Very very nice!   Jerry Lee Lewis rolls out Harbor Lights with his unmatched rocking piano work. The Fieldstones, live at Green's Lounge in South Memphis, grind out Little Bluebird, a slow gripping blues number. Mose Vinson does a real nice barrelhouse piano boogie, Same Thing On My Mind, with clarity and real feel. Very cool. Charlie Feathers contributes Cajun flavored country track, Defrost Your Heart with pure style and grace. Wrapping the release is Jim Dickinson on I'd Love to be a Hippie, a lumbering blues track with a rock edge. This is a super closer to a powerful release.

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Omnivore Recordings: Beale Street Saturday Night - Various Artists

I just received the newest release, Beale Street Saturday Night, from Omnivore Recordings and it is raw and pure. Opening with Walkin' Down Beale Street by Sid Selvidge, the listener hears a blend of soul, jazz, blues and gospel with piano, slide guitar and horns. Fred Ford is up next with Hernando Horn, an exceptional old style blues track featuring exceptionally rich sax work. Grandma Dixie Davis, accompanied by piano is freewheelin and loose. No...this isn't Joe Bonamassa. Sleepy John Estes hits the ground running with Big Fat Mama/Liquor Store. Taking a breather in the track to tell the stories. Prince Gabe has a much more polished vocal presentation and again with story telling dialog. Furry Lewis is easily distinguished on Furry's Blues. A classic with Furry accompanying himself on guitar. Teenie Hodges lays down Rock Me Baby, raw and uncompromised. A more primitive version of the track by Alex with whistling and hammer claps like an old work song is exceptional. Thomas Pinkston tells the story Ben Griffin was killed in the Monarch accompanied by piano. Quite cool. Johnny Woods plays the Frisco Blow, a real authentic train blues on harp. Primitive and excellent! Mud Boy And The Neutrons plays a Dixieland style On The Road Again with every sort of instrument imaginable. Very cool! Thomas Pinkston tells the story of Mr Handy Told Me 50 Years Ago with guitar accompaniment. Unique. Furry Lewis is back with Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird. There is hardly a blues player that is half a story teller like Lewis so this is a particularly cool track. Grandma Dixie Davis wraps the release with Roll On Mississippi. Now I do need to say, I've never heard anyone sing like Grandma Dixie Davis. This is an unusual set of tracks put together by James Luther Dickinson is a cool and historical documentation.
Along with the cd you get 5 pages of liner commentary by Stanley Booth, additional descriptives by Jim Lancaster and a number of wonderful photographs.
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When I Lay My Burden Down - Furry Lewis

Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (March 6, 1893 - September 14, 1981) was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s Walter E. Lewis was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States, but his family moved to Memphis when he was aged seven. Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He was also invited to play several dates with W. C. Handy's Orchestra. His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Alger "Texas" Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene. In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded for the Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session with the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The tracks were mostly blues but included two-part versions of "Casey Jones" and "John Henry". He sometimes fingerpicked, sometimes played with a slide. He recorded many successful records in the late 1920s including "Kassie Jones", "Billy Lyons & Stack-O-Lee" and "Judge Harsh Blues" (later called "Good Morning Judge"). In 1969, Lewis was recorded by the record producer, Terry Manning, at home in Lewis' Beale Street apartment. These recordings were released in Europe at the time by Barclay Records, and then again in the early 1990s by Lucky Seven Records in the United States, and again in 2006 by Universal. Joni Mitchell's song, "Furry Sings the Blues", (on her Hejira album) is about Lewis and the Memphis music she experienced in the early 1970s. Lewis despised the Mitchell song and demanded she pay him royalties. In 1972 he was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues Caravan, which included Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes, Clarence Nelson, Hammy Nixon, Memphis Piano Red, Sam Chatmon, and Mose Vinson. Before he died, Lewis opened twice for The Rolling Stones, played on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, had a part in a Burt Reynolds movie, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and had a profile in Playboy magazine. Lewis began to lose his eyesight because of cataracts in his final years. He contracted pneumonia in 1981, which led to his death from heart failure in Memphis on September 14 of that year, at the age of 88. He is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in South Memphis, where his grave bears two headstones, the second purchased by fans

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Furry's Blues - Furry Lewis

I saw this Leon Russell special on PBS may years ago and Furry lewis was featured on it. He demonstrates some of that famous "John Lee Hooker" timing for his singing.

Walter E. Lewis was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, but his family moved to Memphis when he was aged seven. Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He also was invited to play several dates with W. C. Handy's Orchestra.

His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Alger "Texas" Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene.

In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded for the Victor label at the Memphis Auditorium in a session with the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, and others. He again recorded for Vocalion in Memphis in 1929. The tracks were mostly blues but included two-part versions of "Casey Jones" and "John Henry". He sometimes fingerpicked, sometimes played with a slide. He recorded many successful records in the late 1920s including "Kassie Jones", "Billy Lyons & Stack-O-Lee" and "Judge Harsh Blues" (later called "Good Morning Judge").

In 1969, Lewis was recorded by the record producer, Terry Manning, at home in Lewis' Beale Street apartment. These recordings were released in Europe at the time by Barclay Records, and then again in the early 1990s by Lucky Seven Records in the United States, and again in 2006 by Universal. Joni Mitchell's song, "Furry Sings the Blues", (on her Hejira album) is about Lewis and the Memphis music she experienced in the early 1970s. Lewis despised the Mitchell song and demanded she pay him royalties.

In 1972 he was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues Caravan, which included Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes, Clarence Nelson, Hammy Nixon, Memphis Piano Red, Sam Chatmon, and Mose Vinson.

Before he died, Lewis opened twice for The Rolling Stones, played on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, and had a part in a Burt Reynolds movie, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and had a profile in Playboy magazine.

Lewis began to lose his eyesight because of cataracts in his final years. He contracted pneumonia in 1981, which led to his death from heart failure on 14 September of that year, at the age of 88.[5] He is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in South Memphis, where his grave bears two headstones, the second purchased by fans.
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