"...Of The Blues" by GEORGE "Harmonica" SMITH and his BLUES BAND - June 1969 US Second Studio Album originally on Bluesway Records in Stereo featuring Harp Player Rod Piazza of The Dirty Blues Band and Bacon Fat, Marshall Hooks and Arthur Adams on Guitars with Big Jim Wynn and Ed Davis on Horns (July 2022 UK Beat Goes On Reissue (delayed from May 2021 due to Covid-19) – 1LP onto 1CD – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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 "...Juicy Harmonica..."

 

Now here's a rarity reissued as well as we can hope for  - the fantastic Mississippi harp player's second US album issued originally on Bluesway Records and first time on CD too (incredibly). Let's get to the nitty gritty...

 

UK released July 2022 (delayed from May 2021 due to Covid-19) - "...Of The Blues" by GEORGE "Harmonica" SMITH and his BLUES BAND on Beat Goes On BGOCD1448 (Barcode 5017261214485) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of his second studio album from 1969 that plays out as follows (34:50 minutes):

 

1. A Letter To The President [Side 1]

2. Got My Mojo Working

3. Milk That Cow

4. Blues For Reverend King

5. Ode To Billie Joe

6. Juicy Harmonica [Side 2]

7. Help Me

8. Hawaiian Eye

9. If You Were A Rabbit

Tracks 1 to 9 are his second studio album "...Of The Blues" - released June 1969 in the USA on Bluesway Records BLS 6029 in Stereo (no UK issue). 

 

George Smith wrote tracks 3, 4, 6 and 9 - Track 1 written by Rose Marie McCoy, Track 2 written by Muddy Waters, Track 5 by Bobbie Gentry, Track 7 by Sonny Boy Williamson and Track 8 by Mack David.

 

Produced by BOB THIELE for Flying Dutchman Productions 

Guest musicians included:

ROD PIAZZA of The Dirty Blues Band, Bacon Fat and later with The Midnight Flyers (as Lightnin' Rod) on Lead Harmonica for "A Letter To The President", "Juicy Harmonica" and "Help Me"

MARSHALL HOOKS on Guitar (ARTHUR ADAMS on "A Letter To The President" only)

ROBERT SCHEDELE on Piano

BIG JIM WYNN and ED DAVIS on Saxophones - RICHARD DAVIS on Trumpet

CURTIS TILLMAN on Bass (Drummer unknown)

 

First thing you need to know apart from the pretty card slipcase and the 12-page booklet with Liner Notes from an enthusiastic JOHN O'REGAN (written April 2021) is that the ANDREW THOMPSON Remaster is not from real tapes, but it seems, a clean vinyl source. Beat Goes On states this clearly and given what they've had to work with, the stereo imaging and clarity is remarkable - but you crank it too much and you can hear those edges blur. But make no mistake - this is a job well done and when the band is cooking as they are on their cover of Mack David's "Hawaiian Eye" - the audio is great - a sort of Booker T & The MG's on a rollicking Brass and Harmonica tip.

 

It opens with 3:40 minutes of George talking his way through an end-racial-inequality plea called "A Letter To The President". To the backdrop of train sounds a-chugging-along where the acoustic guitar strums in the left speaker and guest Rod Piazza warbles on Harp in the right - he narrates as if he's a boxcar hobo riding the trains some 20 years and wanting 60ts USA to end 'whites only' signs - the man with the big speeches in the big house to step up the plate in other words. It's good but very much of its time. Better for me is his first cover version of the album, Muddy Waters signature song "Got My Mojo Working" - great feel and warm audio. His first original "Milk That Cow" is probably my least fave on the record - badly dated falsified fun. Way, way better is the full-blown chromatic warbling harmonica instrumental that is "Blues For Reverend King" where GS gets stuck in and makes Little Walter nervous for his crown. Side 1 then ends on another instrumental - Bobbie Gentry's huge hit "Ode To Billie Joe" - which George makes Bluesy and Funky too - very tasty.

 

Side 2 opens with that other Paul Butterfield contemporary Rod Piazza giving it some "Juicy Harmonica" - another warbling instrumental. Piazza is extraordinary - he started out singing and blowing his big gruff harp with two 60ts albums for The Dirty Blues Band (which BGO has reissued and I've reviewed), two for Blue Horizon's Bacon Fat in the very early 70ts (also reviewed that) and then nearly 30-years with his band The Mighty Flyers (still going in 2022). Which brings me to my two craves on the record - George's cover of the Sonny Boy Williamson classic "Help Me" and the fantastic seven-minutes of "If You Were A Rabbit" where both GS and Marshall Hooks kill it on Harmonica and Guitar.

 

By the end of 1969, George Smith was with English Producer Mike Vernon of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac fame in the Eldorado Recording Studios in Hollywood making albums for Vernon's Blue Horizon Records of the UK with the short-lived but much loved Bacon Fat (I reviewed that August 2006 Sony/Blue Horizon double CD anthology years back - "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions"). Their first album "Grease One For Me" would be issued early 1970 with their second "No Time For Jive" coming at the spring of 1971 after November 1970 UK tours. Neither did much business despite the quality and from there on in, Smith went touring with other luminaries such as James Cotton.

 

Getting back to the case in hand - "...Of The Blues" is not a balls-to-the-wall Blues Rock masterpiece for sure, and his first album "Blues With A Feeling: A Tribute To Little Walter" is probably better. But Beat Goes On (BGO) of the UK are to be thanked big-time for making available again those tracks within that are simply brilliant and a warbler LP gem that deserves recognition some 50+ years after the event.

 

July 2022 (delayed from May 2021) also saw BGO of the UK reissue on CD George Smith's more revered and famous debut album "Blues With A Feeling: A Tribute To Little Walter" (BGOCD1035 - Barcode 5017261210357). BGO initially put that disc out way back in 2012 - this is an upgrade with card slipcase and a 2022 copyright date. Remastered from original tapes – it sounds incredible. 

 

Originally from February 1969 on World Pacific Records USA (was given a UK issue on Liberty Records in March 1969), that stereo album featured some Blues heavy-hitters too - Muddy Waters on Guitar, Otis Spann on Piano, SP Leary on Drums with Luther Johnson and Marshall Hooks also on Guitars. It's a winner too. Get 'em both I say...