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Saturday 7 March 2020

Tiny Bradshaw - Breaking Up The House






















Side 1:
01) Breaking Up The House
02) Walk That Mess
03) The Train Kept A-Rollin'
04) T-99
05) Bradshaw Boogie
06) Walkin' The Chalk Line
07) Mailman's Sack
08) Snaggle Tooth Ruth

Side 2:
01) Rippin' And Runnin'
02) The Blues Came Pouring Down
03) Two Dry Bones On The Pantry Shelf
04) Brad's Blues
05) Boodie Green
06) Well Oh Well
07) Newspaper Boy Blues
08) One, Two, Three, Kick Blues






A 1980s Charly comp which includes some (but not all) of Tiny Bradshaw's R&B hits from the early 1950s. The emphasis on this collection is on the vocal efforts of bandleader Bradshaw who was a fine blues shouter, plus sides featuring vocalists Tiny Kennedy and Dorena Deane.

In an earlier post of the LP "A Tribute To The Late Tiny Bradshaw" there is an overview of Bradshaw's career detailing his evolution from 1930s big band front man, through small group swing in the mid 1940s, to leader of a stomping R&B jump band when he joined King Records in late 1949. His raucous brand of hard rocking jump blues sold well in the early 1950s with "Well Oh Well" reaching number 2 in the R&B charts in May 1950 while "I'm Going To Have Myself A Ball" was at number 5 in October 1950, and "Walkin' The Chalk Line" reached number 10 in September 1951.

Billboard, July 1950

Two hits in 1953, "Soft" and "Heavy Juice" were instrumentals featuring Red Prysock on tenor sax. These set the pattern for much of the band's remaining recorded output in 1954 and 1955 as ill health (a series of strokes or heart attacks depending on who you read) forced Tiny to increasingly take a back seat as far as musical activity was concerned. The band however did keep going, with Red Prysock being replaced by Sil Austin who was in turn replaced by Noble "Thin Man" Watts on a series of good instrumental releases for the juke box crowd.

Billboard June 1954 - the last Tiny disc to see chart action

The tracks on this LP were recorded between 1950 and 1952 when Bradshaw's blues ballin' and squallin' was at its artistic and commercial height. His powerful voice was backed by a suitably powerful band which featured tenor sax man Rufus Gore and Orrington Hall on alto and baritone saxes. When Gore left he was replaced by former Tiny Grimes sax player Red Prysock although Gore would return to join Prysock and Hall in a blow the roof off the joint sax lineup.

So this LP is mostly classic Tiny although there are a couple of tracks ("Rippin' And Runnin'" and "Newspaper Boy Blues") where vocals, both male and "female" parts, are by Tiny Kennedy. There's also "One, Two, Three, Kick Blues" where the band backs bloozy chantoozy Dorena Deane. A welcome bonus is a hitherto unreleased track "Snaggle Tooth Ruth" which is lots of fun. All this and a classic 1980s Nozbig cover by Dave Gibson. What more could you want, rhythm fans?

Original Release Details:

Well Oh Well / I Hate You - King 4357 - April 1950

Boodie Green / After You've Gone - King 4376 - August 1950

Breaking Up The House / If You Don't Love Me, Tell Me So - King 4417 - December 1950

Walk That Mess / One, Two, Three, Kick Blues - King 4427 - February 1951

Two Dry Bones On The Pantry Shelf / Brad's Blues - King 4447 - April 1951

Bradshaw Boogie / Walkin' The Chalk Line - King 4457 - June 1951

T-99 / Long Time Baby - King 4487 - September 1951

The Train Kept A-Rollin' / Knockin' Blues - King 4497 - February 1952

Mailman's Sack / Newspaper Boy Blues - King 4537 - April 1952

Lay It On The Line / Rippin' And Runnin' - King 4547 - July 1952

Heavy Juice / The Blues Came Pouring Down - King 4621 - May 1953

Snaggle Tooth Ruth - first issued on this LP


Elsewhere On The Blog:


King LP of mainly instrumental sides by the Bradshaw band. Includes the two big hits featuring Red Prysock, "Soft" and "Heavy Juice." Post includes biography of Tiny Bradshaw.


Krazy Kat compilation of best of Bradshaw (no "Soft" though) quite a bit of duplication with "Breaking Up The House."

General update post on all things Tiny Bradshaw on the blog, including links to El Enmascarado's 78 rpm singles:


Scan by El Enmascarado


Above 2 scans from Joan

More R&B coming soon including loose as a goose West Coast sounds from Marv, untamed Detroit vocal group shenanigans from Charlie B and an LP by an old favourite ripped by my good self. Perhaps another look at Earl Bostic to be thrown in? Stay tuned.

3 comments:

george said...

Many thanks, boogiewoody!

Rockin' Daddy said...

Thanks! Great Album

Chi-Town said...

Thanks BW. Very nice album !