T-Bone Walker - The Natural Blues

Side One:

01. Lonesome Women Blues **

02. Vacation Blues

03. She Had To Let Me Down *

04. Don't Give Me The Runaround

05. Hard Pain Blues

06. So Blue Blues *

07. I'm Waiting For Your Call

08. The Natural Blues ***

09. That's Better For Me

Side Two:

10. Inspiration Blues

11. Description Blues **

12. I Want A Little Girl

13. The Time Seems So Long *

14. Hometown Blues *

15. Misfortune Blues ***

16. I'm Still In Love With You

17. She's The No Sleepin'est Woman *

18. I'm Gonna Move You Out And Get Somebody Else *

* = unreleased track

** = unreleased alternate take

*** = first released on UK only LP "The Blues Of T Bone Walker."

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This LP completes the trilogy of Charly compilations of T-Bone Walker's recordings for Black & White Records in 1946 and 1947. As you can see from the above tracklist, the set includes 6 tracks which were hitherto unreleased, 2 unreleased alternate takes of tracks which were released as singles in the 1940s, and 2 tracks which remained unreleased until 1965, when they appeared on a UK budget LP. The remaining 8 tracks were on singles released by Black & White, Comet (a subsidiary of Black & White), and Capitol Records, which purchased all of T-Bone's Black & White masters in April 1949.

A collection worth looking out for is the 3 CD set in the Capitol Blues Collection series, "T-Bone Walker: The Complete Capitol / Black & White Recordings." Issued in 1995, so it might be hard to find, this set has 75 tracks - the 2 sides T-Bone recorded for Capitol in 1942, the 48 sides he recorded for Black & White, plus 25 alternate takes of the Black & White sides. The accompanying booklet includes a 32 page article on T-Bone by Mark Humphrey.

Now it's time for the facts on the tracks from "The Natural Blues."

Track details in chronological order by recording date:

Don't Give Me The Runaround and Hard Pain Blues were recorded in Hollywood in December 1946.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar) with the Al Killian Quintet : Al Killian (trumpet); Jack McVea (tenor sax); Tommy "The Crow" Kahn or Lloyd Glenn (piano); Frank Clarke (bass); Rabon Tarrant (drums).

Don't Give Me The Runaround was first released on Black & White 115 b/w "It's a Lowdown Dirty Deal" in May 1947.

Hard Pain Blues was first released on Black & White 121 (B Side of "I'm In An Awful Mood") between May and December 1947.

She Had To Let Me Down was recorded in Hollywood, September 13th, 1947.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); Teddy Buckner (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Lloyd Glenn (piano); Arthur Edwards (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

She Had To Let Me Down was first released on this LP in 1983.

I'm Waiting For Your Call and So Blue Blues were recorded in Los Angeles, November 7th, 1947.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); Teddy Buckner (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Billy Hadnott (bass) Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

I'm Waiting For Your Call was first released on Black & White 126 b/w "That's Better For Me" in May 1948.

So Blue Blues was first released on this LP in 1983.

The Natural Blues, That's Better For Me, and Lonesome Women Blues were recorded in Los Angeles, November 12th, 1947.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); George Orendorf (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Billy Hadnott (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

The Natural Blues was first released on Music For Pleasure LP1043 "The Blues Of T Bone Walker" in 1965.

That's Better For Me was first released on Black & White 126 (B Side of "I'm Waiting For Your Call") in May 1948.

Lonesome Women Blues is an alternate take first released on this LP, 1983. Another take was released on Comet T50 as the B Side of "West Side Baby" in October 1948.

Vacation Blues, Inspiration Blues, and Description Blues were recorded in Los Angeles, November 13th, 1947.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); George Orendorf (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); John W. Davis (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

Vacation Blues was first released on Capitol 57-70012 (B Side of "Prison Blues") in June 1949.

Inspiration Blues was first released on Comet T51 (B Side of "I'm Still In Love With You") in late 1948.

Description Blues is an alternate take first released on this LP in 1983. A different take was released on Comet T52 (B Side of "That Old Feeling Is Gone") in February 1949.

The Time Seems So Long and Home Town Blues were recorded in Los Angeles, December 16th, 1947.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); Jack Trainor (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Billy Hadnott (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

The Time Seems So Long was first released on this LP in 1983.

Home Town Blues was first released on this LP in 1983.

Misfortune Blues was recorded in Los Angeles, December 17th, 1947.
Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); Jack Trainor (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Billy Hadnott (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

Misfortune Blues was first released on Music For Pleasure LP1043 "The Blues Of T Bone Walker" in 1965.

I'm Gonna Move You Out And Get Somebody Else, and She's The No Sleepin'est Woman were recorded in Los Angeles, December 18th, 1947.
Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); Jack Trainor (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Billy Hadnott (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

I'm Gonna Move You Out And Get Somebody Else was first released on this LP in 1983.

She's The No Sleepin'est Woman was first released on this LP in 1983.

I Want A Little Girl and I'm Still In Love With You were recorded in Los Angeles on December 29th, 1947.

Personnel: T-Bone Walker (vocal, guitar); Jack Trainor (trumpet); Bumps Myers (tenor sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Billy Hadnott (bass); Oscar Lee Bradley (drums).

I Want A Little Girl was first released on Black & White 125 (b/w "T-Bone Jumps Again") in April 1948.

I'm Still In Love With You was first released on Comet T51 (b/w "Inspiration Blues") in late 1948.

Here are the covers from a couple of Charly CD issues of the Black & White masters, "Low Down Blues" from 1986, and the 1992 "T. Bone Shuffle" from the Charly Blues Masterworks series:

In 1955-57 T-Bone recorded some excellent sides for Atlantic. Some of these were featured on Atlantic LP 8020 "T-Bone Blues" which was issued in 1959 and has remained in print in some form or another ever since. These are all terrific recordings which feature musicians such as Barney Kessel, Earl Palmer, Plas Johnson, Eddie Chamblee, Junior Wells and Jimmy Rogers. There's even a reunion of some of the old gang from the Black & White days - Lloyd Glenn, Billy Hadnott and Oscar Lee Bradley. This album stands up very well with the Black & White and Imperial recordings and is often cited by T-Bone fans as the last of his truly great recordings. Below is the cover from the 1994 Sequel CD reissue of the album which featured 4 bonus tracks. Any edition of this album is worth buying.

Below are the front and back pages of the CD booklet of a more recent Japanese reissue of Atlantic 8020 (with the same 4 bonus tracks as the Sequel issue). The original Atlantic LP had only 11 tracks as opposed to the 15 on CD reissues. And yes, I have just discovered that I have bought the same album twice. That's a hazard of bargain spotting while already having too many CDs in the house.