Elmore James and the Broom Dusters - Blues After Hours (Crown CLP 5168)

Side 1:
01) Dust My Blues
02) Sunnyland
03) Mean And Evil
04) Dark And Dreary
05) Standing At The Crossroads

Side 2:
01) Happy Home
02) No Love In My Heart
03) Blues Before Sunrise
04) I Was A Fool
05) Goodbye Baby

Blues After Hours (Mega)

Blues After Hours (Zippy)

You know, there are often hidden treasures to be found in the virtual bargain basement of the virtual Be Bop Wino record store for there is much musical delight to be found in the unlikeliest looking of albums. And then there's this. Cheapo budget label? Check. Magnificently sleazy cover? Take another look! Now tear your eyes away from the gal at the bar and check out the tracks on the back. Only ten, and they were all five or six years old when this platter was issued.

It's 1960, you see, and Elmore James is currently recording for Bobby Robinson's Fire label in New York. In the last couple of years he's had sides out on Chief and Vee-Jay which were recorded in Chicago, but the tracks on this LP date back a few years to when Elmore was being recorded by the Bihari brothers and these sides were being issued on the Flair label. And now they've made it to the Biharis' budget priced Crown label, complete with lurid cover and thick cardboard sleeve.

But hey, you can't judge a book by its cover (clue to upcoming post) and when you get this sucker back home and pop it on the Dansette, you immediately realise that you are in the presence of genius. This is one hell of an album and although there are only 10 tracks, every one is a winner. And then some, for the final two tracks are gobsmackingly brilliant.

And it's thanks to Marv for reconstructing and sending this album in. I've been working on another LP project over the last couple of days, but as soon as I listened to these tracks (just yesterday afternoon) I dropped everything and started on this post instead. While I've been cobbling together the information for these words of wisdom I've been repeatedly playing the album and am now a hopeless Elmore James addict. It's time for you to surrender to the impassioned vocals and slide guitar of one of the great blues performers, so grab this, pump up the volume, and have a Sunday blues blast.

Recording And Original Release Details:

Dark And Dreary - recorded in Chicago, August 1953. Personnel: Elmore James (vocals, guitar); Boyd Atkins (baritone sax); J.T. Brown (tenor sax); Johnny Jones (piano); Ransom Knowling (bass); Odie Payne (drums).

Rock My Baby Right / Dark And Dreary - Elmore James and His Broomdusters - Flair 1048 - 1954

Sunnyland, Standing At The Crossroads, Mean And Evil, Happy Home, No Love In My Heart - recorded in Culver City, California, in August / September 1954. Personnel: Elmore James (vocals, guitar) with the Maxwell Davis Band: James Parr (trumpet); Maxwell Davis (tenor sax); Jewell Grant (baritone sax); Willard McDaniel (piano); Ralph "Chuck" Hamilton (bass); Jesse Sailes (drums).

Sunny Land / Standing At The Crossroads - Elmore James and His "Broomdusters" - Flair 1057 - October 1954

Late Hours At Midnight / The Way You Treat Me (aka "Mean And Evil" on this LP) - Flair 1062 - March (?) 1955

Happy Home / No Love In My Heart - Elmore James and His "Broomdusters" - Flair 1069 - May 1955

Dust My Blues, Blues Before Sunrise, I Was A Fool, Goodbye Baby - recorded in New Orleans, summer 1955. Personnel: Elmore James (vocals, guitar) with Edward Frank (piano); Frank Fields (bass); Earl Palmer (drums). Vocal Group - The Don Ralke singers dubbed onto "Goodbye Baby" in Los Angeles.

 

Dust My Blues / I Was A Fool - Elmore James and His "Broomdusters" - Flair 1074 - August 1955

Blues Before Sunrise / Good Bye (aka "Goodbye Baby" on this LP) - Elmore James and His "Broom Dusters" - Flair 1079 - November 1955

Elsewhere On The Blog:

The Legend Of Elmore James

The Resurrection Of Elmore James

Two collections of Meteor and Flair sides including alternate takes. You'll find "Rock My Baby Right" and "Late Hours At Midnight" on these LPs. Both posts have new download links.

Recommended Purchases:

Ace CDCHM 1043

Mid-price extended edition of "Blues After Hours" with 8 bonus tracks and notes by Dave Sax.

Ace CDCHD 583

28 track compilation of Meteor / Flair / Modern sides plus the Trumpet issue of "Dust My Broom" - a terrific compilation. I've had this one for many years and it remains one of my favourite Ace compilations.

Thanks to Joan K for the scans of the Flair singles. Thanks to the original uploaders of the artwork on this reconstructed LP. Many thanks to Marv for "Blues After Hours."

Marvin & Johnny (Crown LP 5381)

Side 1:
01) Cherry Pie
02) Ain't That Right
03) Tell Me Darling (Long Tall Marvin)
04) Sometimes I Wonder
05) Sweet Potato

Side 2:
01) Tick Tock
02) Have Mercy Miss Percy (Long Tall Marvin)
03) Dear One
04) Will You Love Me
05) I Wanna

Marvin & Johnny (Crown LP 5381) - Mega

Marvin & Johnny (Crown LP 5381) - Zippy

Sometimes I think of the Be Bop Wino blog as a kind of ersatz radio station, at other times I think of it as a virtual record shop. So you're walking down the street in a slightly louche quarter of a big city and you come across a shop with "Be Bop Wino - New 'n' Second Hand Records" on a faded sign above the window which contains a selection of LP sleeves beckoning, yes, beckoning, to your inner rhythmatic urges. You've just got to go in, and it's an Aladdin's cave of vinyl and even shellac and maybe some 'zines such as "Blues & Rhythm" and a few fly blown, dust covered copies of "Kicks."

Despite the slightly run down appearance of the shop which has perhaps seen better days (as has its owner), you get the impression that it is a carefully curated emporium, with the browsers clearly labelled as "Blues" or "R&B" or "Vocal Groups" or "Instrumentals" or "Soul Jazz" or "Swing."

You notice a doorway towards the rear of the shop with a hand written cardboard sign above it saying "bargain basement" and down a narrow staircase you go into a dimly lit cellar which smells slightly of damp and here they be, the bargain bins full of remaindered and second hand LPs. There's no sign of any organisation here, just browsers crammed with album sleeves. At first glance it doesn't look very promising - lots of garish cardboard sleeves in not very good condition, with promises of "Million Seller Hits," numerous invitations to a "Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party" and opportunities to "Twist" with Jimmy McCracklin or Etta James.

Unless you're one of the hip crowd, you've probably never heard of many of the artists on these albums but if you're in the know then you quickly realise that there are treasures in this most unpromising of locations.

Your eye is caught by a sleeve which is slightly less cheap looking than most of the stuff here and so you pull out this Marvin & Johnny LP which boasts a painting of the musicians. It's even got an artist's signature "Fazzio" although if truth be told the "painting" of Marvin & Johnny is in fact an airbrushed photo. Thick cardboard sleeve, no inner sleeve, no info on the back cover which is just a sheet of paper with a list of other releases on this label, Crown, and by St. Nicholas of Tosches most of them seem to be the most appalling schlock. And there's only 5 tracks on each side. But hell, it's only pennies to buy so buy it you do and once you get it home you realise you've got ten tracks of primo R&B / Rock 'n' Roll, for Crown was the budget LP outlet for the Los Angeles based Modern / RPM diskery.

And thanks to regular donor Marv for reconstituting this fine example of a cheapo LP of West Coast rhythm 'n' blues. "Marvin & Johnny" was issued in 1963 but 7 of its 10 sides were issued on singles between 1954 and 1956 on the Modern label.

"Marvin" was Marvin Phillips, once the tenor sax player in the band of The Great Gates and also one of a tenor sax duo with Emory Perry. He was friends with singer / pianist / songwriter Jesse Belvin and the pair were both members of a vocal group called Three Dots And a Dash which was formed by Big Jay McNeely to feature in his live concerts and on his recordings for Imperial in 1950-51. Belvin left the McNeely outfit and Phillips took over on lead vocals. The two were reunited as a vocal duo on Specialty Records in 1953 when they had a hit with "Dream Girl" as Jesse and Marvin.

When Belvin left for the Army, Phillips kept the vocal duo going under the name of "Marvin and Johnny" with a series of further releases on Specialty. "Johnny" was initially Carl Green (of the Turks) and then Marvin's old sax partner Emory Perry (this is the duo on the LP cover). The pair transferred over to Modern Records where they had a hit with "Tick Tock" / "Cherry Pie."

Most of the sides on this LP feature the Phillips / Perry duo. "Will You Love Me" has Rufus Anderson as "Johnny" while on "Ain't That Right" Phillips and Perry are joined by Jesse Belvin. Note that two of the tracks, "Have Mercy Miss Percy" and "Tell Me Darling" are Marvin Phillips solo efforts under the name Long Tall Marvin.

This brief article by Marv Goldberg details the various singers behind "Johnny" in the duo's 1950s recordings for Specialty, Modern and Aladdin.

 Original Releases:

Tick Tock / Cherry Pie - Modern 933 - July 1954

Ko Ko Mo / Sometimes I Wonder - Modern 949 - January 1955

Will You Love Me / Sweet Dreams - Modern 968 - September 1955

Ain't That Right / Let Me Know - Modern 974 - November 1955

Have Mercy Miss Percy / Tell Me Darling - Long Tall Marvin - Modern 933 - June 1956

Sweet Potato; I Wanna; Dear One; first issued on this LP.

Elsewhere On The Blog:

Two compilations of Aladdin sides feature some Marvin and Johnny tracks:

 Rock'n Roll Sock Hop (Score SLP-4018)

Aladdin 14 Magic Lamps

Recommended Purchase:

Cherry Pie - Ace CDCHD 509

Thanks once again to Marv for Marvin & Johnny.

John Lee Hooker - The Blues (Crown LP 5157)

Side 1:
01. Boogie Chillen
02. I'm In The Mood
03. Crawling King Snake
04. Queen Bee
05. Hobo Blues
06. Weeping Willow

Side 2:
01. Cold Chills
02. Hoogie Boogie
03. Whistling And Moaning
04. Sally Mae
05. House Rent Boogie
06. Anybody Seen My Baby

 John Lee Hooker - The Blues (Mega)

John Lee Hooker - The Blues (Zippy)

Thanks to regular contributor Marv for this reconstitution of a John Lee Hooker LP which was originally released in 1960. The sides on this collection are a good selection of Hooker's late 1940s / early 1950s releases on Modern, some of which were very big R&B hits. "Boogie Chillen" was number 1 in the R&B charts in January 1949. "Hobo Blues," "Crawling King Snake" and "I'm In The Mood" were also hits in 1950/51. During this period Hooker sides were also released on a multiplicity of labels, including Specialty, King, Chess, and Gotham, sometimes pseudonymously.

A native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, Hooker's footstomping, one man and his guitar delta blues style stood in stark contrast to the jump band and blues combo styles which dominated the R&B charts of the time. When he signed for Vee Jay records in the autumn of 1955, his vocals and guitar work were accompanied by small combos which usually featured labelmate Jimmy Reed's collaborator Eddie Taylor. He re-recorded many of his Modern tracks for Vee Jay and also had success with new R&B material such as "Dimples" and "Boom Boom."

This particular LP was issued at a time when Hooker was making a successful move into the "folk blues" market, having recorded two accoustic albums for the jazz label Riverside aimed at the mainly white college crowd. The Bihari Brothers' budget LP outlet Crown wasn't the only label to cash in on the folk blues craze as more early 1950s Hooker material was recycled on LPs by the King and Chess labels in 1960.

On June 25th, 1960, Hooker appeared at the Newport Folk Festival on the same bill as Joan Baez, Flatt & Scruggs, and The Weavers. On July 3rd he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival. His Riverside LP, "That's My Story" was released around this time. In August 1960 Vee Jay had an ad in the trade papers announcing that the LP "Travelin'" was a winner in the Downbeat International Critics Poll in both jazz and folk categories. In October a Vee Jay advert advised dealers of the issue of "John Lee Hooker's New Folk Single" - "Tupelo" which was a live recording from one of the Newport festivals.

The cover of this Crown LP uses one of the favourite themes of "folk blues" LP covers - empty chair(s) and a guitar lying ready for the folk artist to take to the stage to perform a set of songs relating tales of hard times on the Delta. Mind you this cover is a model of restraint when you compare it with that of another 1960 LP of Hooker sides - Chess LP 1438 "House Of The Blues" which had a photograph of a shot-to-hell country shack.

It should be borne in mind that John Lee Hooker, like fellow Vee Jay bluesman Jimmy Reed, was still recording rockin' R&B records while doing the folk blues rounds. In 1962 his "Boom Boom" reached number 16 in the R&B chart  and even crossed into the lower reaches of the pop charts.

The Track Details:

01. Boogie Chillen - Recorded in Detroit, circa September, 1948. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-627.

02. I'm In The Mood - Recorded in Detroit, August 7th, 1951. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar); Eddie Kirkland (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 835.

03. Crawling King Snake - Recorded in Detroit, February 18th, 1949. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-714.

04. Queen Bee - Recorded in Detroit, November 16th, 1950. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-814.

05. Hobo Blues - Recorded in Detroit, February 18th, 1949. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-663.

06. Weeping Willow - Recorded in Detroit, ? 1949. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-688.

07. Cold Chills - Recorded in Detroit, early 1952. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar); Bernie Besman (organ). Released on Modern 862.

08. Hoogie Boogie - Recorded in Detroit, ? February 1949. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-663.

09. Whistling And Moaning - Recorded in Detroit, ? 1949. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar, whistling). Released on Modern 20-688.

10. Sally Mae - Recorded in Detroit, circa September, 1948. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). This is an alternate take of the side released on Modern 20-627.

11. House Rent Boogie - Recorded in Detroit, November 16th, 1950. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar). Released on Modern 20-814.

12. Anybody Seen My Baby - Recorded in Detroit, August 7th, 1951. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocal, guitar); Eddie Kirkland (guitar). Released on Modern 847.

Original Single Releases of Tracks:

Modern 20-627 - Sally May / Boogie Chillen' - John Lee Hooker & His Guitar - released November 1948. Re-released as Modern 627 in 1951.

Modern 20-663 - Hoogie Boogie / Hobo Blues - John Lee Hooker & His Guitar - released March 1949.

Modern 20-688 - Whistlin' and Moanin' Blues / Weeping Willow Boogie - John Lee Hooker - released June (?) 1949.

Modern 20-714 - Crawlin' King Snake / Drifting From Door To Door - John Lee Hooker and his Guitar - released October 1949.

Modern 20-814 - John L's House Rent Boogie / Queen Bee - John Lee Hooker - released May 1951.

Modern 835 - I'm In The Mood / How Can You Do It - John Lee Hooker - released October 1951.

Modern 847 - Turn Over A New Leaf  / Anybody Seen My Baby - John L. Hooker - released ?early 1952?

Modern 862 - Rock Me Mama / Cold Chills All Over Me - John Lee Hooker - released circa April 1952.

Elsewhere on the blog: "This Is Hip" - a collection of Vee Jay sides including "Dimples" and "Boom Boom."

Click on the link - "John Lee Hooker - This Is Hip"

The original Zippyshare link is still active and I have added a new Mega link.

Many thanks to Marv and a tip of the chapeau to Discogs.com for cover art.

Twist With Jimmy McCracklin (Crown LP 5244) Re-Upped

Side 1:
01. I Can't Tell
02. I'm Gonna Tell Your Mother
03. My Mother Says
04. That Ain't Right
05. Please Forgive

Side 2:
01. Couldn't Be A Dream
02. Oh Baby
03. You Don't Seem To Understand
04. Reelin' And Rockin' Twist

Twist With Jimmy McCracklin (Mega)

Twist With Jimmy McCracklin (Zippy)

With many thanks to El Enmascarado who sent in this 1962 Crown LP which was originally posted on the 7th December 2010.

The original post is here -

https://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=jimmy+mccracklin

Go to it now for the fascinating details of how to do the twist, and if you happen to own a record company, how to pass off your back catalogue of old R&B tracks as the latest dance craze. There's also a fairly lengthy summary of the R&B years of Jimmy McCracklin and the CDs and tracks to look out for and a link to The Hound's article on Jimmy's guitarist Lafayette "The Thing" Thomas.

Yes, this is as fine an example of low budget exploitation as you could find, but it is also a nice little collection of some of Jimmy's R&B recordings for Modern in 1954-55, plus "Reelin' And Rockin'" from 1950. Scratched vinyl, a low bit rate, but surprisingly good sound quality as I found when I compared it to these excellent Ace CDs of Jimmy's Modern recordings -

Ace CDCHD 720

Ace CDCHD 993

More rockin' and boppin' re-ups, plus new stuff in the pipeline. Stay tuned!

Vido Musso - Teen Age Dance Party (Crown LP 5029)

Side 1
1 Honky Tonk
2 Speak Easy
3 Blues For Two
4 Oh Yes
5 Oh Marie

Side2
1 Sorrento
2 Intermission Riff
3 You Feel It
4 Rockin' Time
5 Sweet Sue

Ripped from vinyl at 128 kbps.

Download from here (no password):

http://www48.zippyshare.com/v/27350511/file.html

Many thanks to El Enmascarado who salvaged this 1957 Crown LP for an eye watering outlay of 50 cents. As you can see from the above scans the cover was rather trashed, especially the back which made me feel nauseous every time I looked at it. I've included a cleaned up version in the download but I'm afraid my limited graphic skills don't run to reinstating the damaged front cover. The disc itself was in pretty good condition so the sound quality on these mp3s is fine, with just an occasional thump and click.

As for the content, there are similarities with the Bill Ramal LP "Screamin' Saxes" which I posted back in December 2012. Both albums feature a veteran former swing era big band tenor sax player attempting to appeal to the teen market. On "Screamin' Saxes" it was Georgie Auld who honked away gamely on a series of R&B cover versions, including "Honky Tonk" which is also on "Teen Age Dance Party."

Sicilian born Vido Musso was well into his 40s when he cut this LP for the Bihari owned Crown budget label. In the mid 1930s he had joined the Benny Goodman band and was on their recording of "Sing, Sing, Sing." He had spells in the bands of Gene Krupa, Harry James and Woody Herman among others, and after the war he had a successful stay with the Stan Kenton band.

Vido Musso on sax with Benny Goodman and Big Sid Catlett.
William Gottlieb collection, Library of Congress

By the early 1950s Vido was established on the West Coast working with small jazz groups. He recorded singles for Trilon in 1947, Arco in 1951 and Galaxy in 1952. In 1953 he joined the Bihari's Modern / RPM group of labels, recording two singles in 1953-4, "Blue Night" / "Vido's Boogie" and "Vido's Drive"/ "Frosty", which were released on RPM. These singles were followed by the jazz album "The Swingn'st" which was released on Modern and then on Crown.

"Teen Age Dance Party" was released in 1957 on Crown which was by that time the Bihari's budget label. Cynics might say that this is a fine example of exploitation, an attempt to leap aboard the current rock and roll craze, and they would be right. We've had a few examples of "exploitation" LPs on the blog before, such as the aforementioned "Screamin' Saxes" and "rock and roll" albums attributed to "Hen Gates" which turned out to be recycled Freddie Mitchell and Lockjaw Davis tracks. And of course there was the Crown LP of "twist" tunes by Jimmy McCracklin which had nothing whatsoever to do with the dance craze but turned out to be an excellent blues album.

But whatever the motive behind the making of this LP, the music stands up quite well. The version of Bill Doggett's "Honky Tonk" is especially good and other tracks rock along nicely.

Ace Records in the UK own the Modern masters and they have released a CD which includes just about all of Vido's recordings for Modern/ RPM / Crown. Ace CDCHD1035 uses the artwork of the original "The Swingin'st" LP.

There is an interesting article by Peter Gibbon on Vido Musso on the Ace website here.

With thanks to El Enmascarado.

Stop Press: Joan K has sent in a cleaned up version of the front cover:

Smokey Hogg Sings The Blues (Crown CLP 5226)

Side One:
1. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
2. Coming Back Home To You
3. Look In Your Eyes Pretty Mama
4. You Can't Keep Your Business
5. Worryin Mind
6. My Baby's Worryin' Me

Side Two:
1. Runaway
2. You Just Gotta Go
3. It' Raining Here
4. I Got Your Picture
5. When You Get Old
6. Goin Back To Chicago

Once again we thank the mysterious El Enmascadero Del Platter for another vintage Crown LP, complete with “lived in” cover. This time around it’s blues time as we look at the series of “… Sings the Blues” LPs which were released on the Bihari brothers’ budget Crown label in 1961. Four albums of rough and ready bluesmen were released in the short series: “Lightning Hopkins Sings The Blues” (CLP 5224), “Smokey Hogg Sings The Blues” (CLP 5226), “John Lee Hooker Sings The Blues” (CLP 5232) and “Howling Wolf Sings The Blues” (CLP 5240). Thanks to Joan K for the "cleaner" sleeves below. El Enmascadero has sent in the magnificently worn-looking Howling Wolf cover.

Cover "cleaned" by 'Brian with a B'

For blues fans of the late 1950s / early 1960s there were other releases on Crown, including a series of B.B. King albums, a magnificently sleazily packaged Elmore James collection ("Blues After Hours"), more John Lee Hooker, a Pee Wee Crayton LP and a couple of Jimmy Witherspoon albums, including one called “Jimmy Witherspoon Sings The Blues.” Of course what all this material had in common was that it was gathered from the Bihari’s Modern, Flair and RPM labels and the sides were recorded from the late 1940s through to the mid 1950s. Thanks again to Joan K for more covers:

As noted in the previous posts about Crown, the packaging of these albums could be extremely shoddy, with sleeves that had pasted on photos on the front covers, generic back covers and as in this Smokey Hogg LP, a track list which didn’t match up to the record sleeve or the disc label. Ignore the evidence of your eyes, for Side One of this LP has six tracks and not five, the “extra” track being “My Baby’s Worryin’ Me.”

“Ragged but right” is the phrase (as yelled by Smokey somewhere on the LP) which best describes the music here. We simply haven’t had enough wild blues stomp on Be Bop Wino and I’m hoping that this post will go some way towards correcting that failing. Texan Smokey Hogg’s recording career started with a release on Decca before the Second World War but didn’t really pick up until around 1947 when he cut some sides for the small Dallas label Bluebonnet Records. These were leased by Modern and eventually led to a direct recording deal with the Biharis and a move out to the West Coast. His biggest hit was “Little School Girl” which on this album is titled “Good Morning Little School Girl”, and in fact this may well be an alternate take and not the original single version. Judge for yourselves!

Listen to the single release of “Little School Girl,” courtesy of Joan K.



Although his comparatively early death in 1960 meant Smokey never did attract the audiences that Hopkins, Hooker and The Wolf enjoyed thanks to the 1960s blues revival, Smokey had a pretty productive recording career through most of the 1950s, cutting many sides for Modern as well as Specialty, Imperial, Sittin’ In With, Exclusive, Mercury, Federal, Combo and goodness knows who else. His final recordings were for Ebb in late 1957 or early 1958.

Ripped from vinyl at 96 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/439834263/Smokey_Hogg_Sings_The_Blues.rar

Or here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PA5J3WIQ

Side One:
1- Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (LA Dec 10 1947)
2- Coming Back Home To You Again (LA Feb 17 1950)
3- Look In Your Eyes Pretty Mama (LA 1950)
4- You Can't Keep Your Business Straight (LA 1950)
5- Worrying Mind (LA Dec 10 1947)
6- My Baby’s Worryin’ Me (LA Nov 22 1947)

Side Two:
1- Runaway (LA 1950)
2- You Just Gotta Go (LA November 22, 1947)
3- It's Raining Here (LA September 1951)
4- I Got Your Picture (LA Feb 17 1950)
5- When You Get Old (LA Feb 17 1950)
6- Goin Back To Chicago (LA Feb 17 1950)

Recommended purchases:

The UK Ace label owns the rights to the Modern label recordings and has released three CDs of Smokey Hogg –

“Midnight Blues” has the look of an original Crown LP but in fact the front cover photograph is from a Crown LP of Bizet’s “Carmen.” It’s a great evocation of the Crown “look,” though!

“Serve It to the Right” has a mixture of Modern and Combo recordings and “Deep Ellum Rambler” is drawn solely from the Modern vaults.

I simply must take this opportunity to recommend the Ace reissue of “Howling Wolf Sings The Blues.” The original twelve tracks (including two by Joe Hill Louis) are augmented by eight bonus tracks and there are superb sleeve notes by Dave Sax in which he not only recalls the impact of the arrival of imported Crown LPs in the UK, but also sorts out the tangled tale of Howling Wolf, Sam Phillips, Ike Turner, Modern and Chess from back in Memphis in the early 1950s. A superb release.

With many thanks to the mysterious masked record man, and to Joan K. Information garnered from the Both Sides Now website and the Bruyninckx discography.

Happy New Year, everybody.