OXFORD, Miss. — Fat
Possum Records, the Oxford, Mississippi-based label that set a
new standard for raw blues and rock ’n’ roll, will commemorate its 25th anniversary with a year-long program
including the first-time-on-vinyl release of 30 groundbreaking
blues recordings.
The series, highlighting Fat Possum’s storied
and varied history, includes new and first-time-on-vinyl releases
from hard-hitting North Mississippi “Hill Country Blues” performers; stellar sides
from past masters of the Delta style cut in the 1960s, ’70s, and
’80s, recorded by famed musical historian George Mitchell; classic compilations
of juke joint blues-rockers; and a first-time-on-vinyl reissue of
the acclaimed 2005 All-Star tribute to arguably Fat Possum’s second most famous
bluesman, Junior
Kimbrough, involving Spiritualized, Black Keys, The Stooges, and Pete Yorn.
Fat Possum was started in 1991 by Matthew Johnson using $4,000 in student
loans. The label soon gained recognition with albums by North
Mississippi bluesmen Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, produced by musician
and former New
York Times music critic Robert Palmer.
Starting with Kimbrough’s All Night Long, and followed by
Burnside’s Bad
Luck City, Fat Possum found itself
landing a perfect one-two punch to the blues-rock establishment,
finding just the right mix of commercial and critical success and —
utter ire among the so-called blues purists. Releases that followed
were an ear-opening experience for blues listeners. Eschewing
rocked-up “contemporary blues” and directionless archival reissues,
Fat Possum brought to the foreground a generation of hard-hitting
blues musicians who had been hiding in plain sight for decades.
With never a nod to the past, no evidence of nostalgia, the music
wasn’t presented with a whiff of the folkloric — these were
upside-your-head records that were made to blow the back off your
shack.
Fat Possum’s original stars and some of its
greatest discoveries will be available as part of its 25th-anniversary
series. Kimbrough will be represented by a vinyl reissue of Meet Me in the City, released a year after
the trance-blues master’s 1998 death.
T-Model
Ford will be heard on a pair of ferocious sets cut in
tandem with longtime drummer Spam: T-Model’s label debut Pee Wee Get My Gun (1997) followed by Bad Man (2002), the latter of
which was produced by the venerated musician-producer Jim Dickinson.
The most down-home side of the Fat Possum roster
will be represented in a cache of albums by some of the label’s
most gifted solo performers: Robert Belfour (2000), Robert Cage (1998), Johnny Farmer (1998), and Asie Payton
(2002).
R.L. Burnside, perhaps the label’s
best known and most revered artist, will be heard on a compilation
of material recorded before his arrival at Fat Possum. R.L. Burnside’s Unplugged, packages
never-before-heard sides recorded in Europe in 1982.
Music by these and other Fat Possum blues
artists — plus offerings from house-rocking modern acts as Grandpa Boy (a.k.a. Paul Westerberg of the Replacements), Bob Log III, 20 Miles (featuring Judah Bauer of the Jon Spencer Blues
Explosion), Heartless Bastards —
will be released on vinyl and digital editions of the label’s three
Not
the Same Old Blues Crap anthologies (from 1997,
2001, and 2004) and the compilation All Men Are Liars (1998).
Fat Possum-affiliated label Big Legal Mess will offer a selection
of ten LPs and full-length downloads drawn from George Mitchell’s
genre defining fieldwork, recorded between 1963 and 1982. Some of
the material has been unavailable in its entirety since its
original 12-inch release. Artists include such masters as Furry Lewis, Buddy Moss and Houston Stackhouse.
Additionally, John Lee Hooker’s Alone, a 1976
solo live set by the Detroit blues titan captured at New York’s Hunter College, will make its
appearance on two individual LPs. Also premiering on vinyl will be Sunday Nights, the 2005 Kimbrough
salute starring the Black Keys (whose own Fat Possum
albums put them on the map), Iggy & the Stooges,
Spiritualized, Cat Power, Mark Lanegan, and a host of other
top rock ’n’ roll talents.
Since its outset two-and-a-half decades ago, Fat Possum’s operating motto has
been “We’re Trying Our Best.” This celebratory cavalcade will prove
definitively that its pretty damn good.
Released in 2015:
Oct. 2 - Not the Same
Old Blues Crap 1 LP
Oct. 30 - J.W.
Warren – Life Ain’t Worth Livin LP / Digital
Oct. 30 - Jimmy Lee
Williams – Hoot Your Belly LP / Digital
Nov. 27 - Buddy
Moss – self titled LP / Digital
Nov. 27 - Not the
Same Old Blues Crap 2 LP
To be released in
2016:
January 8 - Leon Pinson – Hush –
Somebody Is Calling Me LP / Digital
February
19 - Not the Same
Old Blues Crap 3 (Blues Crap
1 & 2 in the UK Also)
April 8 - Furry
Lewis – Good Morning Judge LP / Digital
April 8 - Houston Stackhouse & Friends LP / Digital
April 16 - Sunday Nights: The Songs
of Junior Kimbrough
Record Store Day LP
April
16 - Junior Kimbrough – I Gotta Try You Girl Daft
Punk Edit Record Store Day LP
May 06 - R.L.
Burnside - Mississippi Hill Country Blues LP
May 20 - John Lee Hooker - Alone
Volume 1 LP
May 20 - John Lee
Hooker - Alone Volume 2 LP
May 27 - T-Model Ford - Pee Wee
Get My Gun LP
May 27 -
T-Model Ford - Bad Man LP
June 10 - Jim
Bunkley & George Henry Bussey LP / Digital
June
10 - Junior Kimbrough - Meet Me in the City LP
June 24 – R.L. Burnside (unreleased recordings)
July 15 - Asie Payton - Just Do
Me Right LP
July
15 - Robert Belfour - What's Wrong With You LP
July 22 - All Men Are Liars Compilation CD / LP / Digital
Aug. 17 - Jimmy Lee Harris – I
Wanna Ramble LP /
Digital
Aug.
17 - Robert Cage - Can See What You're Doing LP
Sept.
9 - Johnny Farmer - Wrong Doers Respect Me LP
Oct. 7- Dewey
Corley & Walter Miller LP / Digital
Oct. 7 -
Paul “Wine” Jones - Mule LP
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