Let's Get Together And Drink Some Gin / Possum Hunt - Smokey Hogg (Modern 20-783)

Listen to "Let's Get Together And Drink Some Gin"

Listen to "Possum Hunt"

Recorded in Los Angeles on July 18th, 1950. Personnel: Smokey Hogg (vocal and guitar); Dorothy Broyles (piano); Bill Davis (bass); Edward Hall (drums).

Released in December 1950. The Billboard review on the 9th December 1950 was less than enthusiastic: "Hogg does a so-so southern shout blues in slow tempo. Melody is in the "How Long" vein, lyric not especially strong."

However there was a much more enthusiastic review for the B-side, "Possum Hunt": "Romping boogie blues in the old tradition. Material is real southern back country stuff, honest and earthy. Hogg and combo do a zestful, happy job."

Billboard, December 9th, 1950

Fans of Young Jessie will recognise that "Possum Hunt" is the same song as "Rabbit On A Log" which was released by The Hunters on Flair in 1953. The country blues song was transformed into a frantic R&B rocker with stand out vocals by Richard Berry and Young Jessie, plus yelping hound dog sound effects and disorderly yelling by the rest of the group. It's hard to imagine a more different interpretation of the song which Smokey Hogg performs here.

Modern 20-783 didn't make any chart noise although "Possum Hunt" was a territorial tip in Atlanta in the January 27th 1951 edition of Billboard. In February 1951 Smokey left Modern and signed up with Mercury Records.

And with this disc my bluesin' and boozin' friends, we come to the end of the first round of El Enmascarado's "Blues On 78." I hope you've enjoyed these sounds as much as I have. Many thanks, oh masked one!

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.