"...The Sun Is Shining..."
Before his sad passing in
December 1975 - Mississippi's Theodore Roosevelt Taylor (aka 'Hound Dog')
dragged his cheap Japanese guitar around clubs with his pals and fellow musical
cohorts Brewer Phillips (Second Guitar) and Ted Harvey on Drums and made a
ballsy slide-guitar racket akin to Elmore James without the finesse but with
all the gutbucket passion. Think Seasick Steve circa the early 70ts and you're
there. They'd play two or three hours a night - six nights a week for $45 a
night - because they loved it. And man can you tell...
With his band 'The
Houserockers' - they cut three albums on the newly formed US independent label
Alligator Records in the Seventies - "Hound Dog Taylor And The
Houserockers" (October 1971 on Alligator AL 4701), "Natural
Boogie" (April 1974 on Alligator AL 4704) and "Beware Of The
Dog!" (April 1976 on Alligator AL 4707). And that's where this album comes
in.
Culled from those June 1971
and September 1973 sessions for the first two LPs (recorded at Sound Studios in
Chicago) - Alligator put together this posthumous album of unreleased tracks
"Genuine Houserocking Music" and released it as a vinyl LP in May
1982 on Alligator AL 4727. This October 1993 CD Remaster on Alligator ALCD 4727
(Barcode 045395472728) is a straightforward transfer of that 10-track album -
Remastered by TOM COYNE at DMS in New York (35:25 minutes): It plays out as
follows...
1. Ain't Got Nobody
2. Gonna Send You Back To
Georgia
3. Fender Bender
4. My Baby's Coming Home
5. Blue Guitar
6. The Sun Is Shining
7. Phillips Goes Bananas
8. What'd I Say
9. Kansas City
10. Crossroads
For someone who claimed he
'couldn't play for shit' - Hound Dog Taylor raced up and down those frets with
his fingers and slide like he believed he was Stevie Ray Vaughan. I beg to
differ with his own humble analysis - this hep cat could play - and wasn't too
fussy about delivery neither. The results are raw and real. This is gutsy
low-down Mississippi Blues - slashing slide - instrumentals that seem to have
made up on the spot - along with covers of perennials like Elmore James'
"The Sun Is Shining", Ray Charles' "What I'd Say", the
Traditional Blues of "Crossroads" and Leiber/Stoller's 1959 hit for
Wilbert Harrison - "Kansas City". The boogie instrumental
"Fender Bender" is credited to second guitarist Brewer Phillips,
"My Baby’s Coming Home" is co-written by Taylor with Narvel Eatmon
(the song was released by Taylor as a US 45 in 1980 on Rooster Records) while
the others are Taylor originals. You'd have to say that the slashing slide of
"Ain't Got Nobody" and the same on the brilliant "My Baby's
Coming Home" are exciting and grungy for all the right reasons. "Blue
Guitar" is hard-hitting slow Blues with the second axe of Brewer Phillips
distorted while Hound Dog digs into those licks for this cool instrumental
(some stunning playing on this cut). And it goes like that...so good.
This was their rejects remember
so it's hardly a masterpiece - but I love it. There's just something about the
raw rocking nature of this ragbag LP that I dig so much (so Peter Green's
Fleetwood Mac in places - Jeremy Spencer's fixation with Elmore James).
Forgotten and overlooked -
check out this joyful Bluesman with his House Rocking buddies. And tell Seasick
Steve fans the good news...
