Alabama Slim & Little Freddie King – The Mighty Flood (Music Maker).
Alabama Slim (from Alabama, surprisingly) and his contemporary, Mississippian Little Freddie King are two of the biggest names in blues (in the case of Slim this is quite literal as he is almost 7 feet tall) and when they get together, people take notice. Both lost all of their possessions during Hurricane Katrina and had to flee to Dallas, Texas. Their trials and tribulations have manifested themselves on The Mighty Flood. The eponymous title track opens proceedings and is a graphic description of the New Orleans flood via a Chicago blues. Please Leave My Money Alone is a slow, rhythmic blues but they return to the Chicago fold for Crack Alley. This has the first introduction of Slewfoot’s harmonica and although the song is pretty standard stuff, it is very earthy. The pace on Way Down In The Bottom is still quite sedate and this is a slow heartbeat of a song. I Got The Blues lifts the pace a little. It’s a tale of lose job, lose woman, get the blues with reverb guitar for the soundtrack. I love the way that they get maximum returns for the economy of effort. Going Upstairs keeps up the pace and even increases it by a bit – simply another tale of broken relationships.
The dulcet tone of Slim’s spoken lyric on Mr Charlie makes for a great tale and there are more of those dulcet tones on Coming Home. John Lee Hooker influences can be heard throughout the album but none more than on this with just guitar and voice. This is music made up of the most base of elements. His voice has more of a strained quality on Waiting On You and again there is nothing too fancy – they just get on with the job. The two guitars are independent but they are together at the same time. They swap vocalists with great aplomb and King takes over for Lord, I’m Good For Something, which heralds the return of the harp and has a drumbeat for about only the second time so far. This organic Gospel is top drawer. King keeps the vocal for I Don’t Know What To Do and it is all over the place, even with drums again, but does come together in the end. The main point to push here is the passion of the artists and it is this passion that conquers all, especially in the vocal. They reprise the title track as an acoustic blues to finish with and have the harmonica wailing for New Orleans and the same deep vocal as the opener.
These guys need to be heard and appreciated – do it!
http://www.musicmaker.org/
David Blue.
Alabama Slim (from Alabama, surprisingly) and his contemporary, Mississippian Little Freddie King are two of the biggest names in blues (in the case of Slim this is quite literal as he is almost 7 feet tall) and when they get together, people take notice. Both lost all of their possessions during Hurricane Katrina and had to flee to Dallas, Texas. Their trials and tribulations have manifested themselves on The Mighty Flood. The eponymous title track opens proceedings and is a graphic description of the New Orleans flood via a Chicago blues. Please Leave My Money Alone is a slow, rhythmic blues but they return to the Chicago fold for Crack Alley. This has the first introduction of Slewfoot’s harmonica and although the song is pretty standard stuff, it is very earthy. The pace on Way Down In The Bottom is still quite sedate and this is a slow heartbeat of a song. I Got The Blues lifts the pace a little. It’s a tale of lose job, lose woman, get the blues with reverb guitar for the soundtrack. I love the way that they get maximum returns for the economy of effort. Going Upstairs keeps up the pace and even increases it by a bit – simply another tale of broken relationships.
The dulcet tone of Slim’s spoken lyric on Mr Charlie makes for a great tale and there are more of those dulcet tones on Coming Home. John Lee Hooker influences can be heard throughout the album but none more than on this with just guitar and voice. This is music made up of the most base of elements. His voice has more of a strained quality on Waiting On You and again there is nothing too fancy – they just get on with the job. The two guitars are independent but they are together at the same time. They swap vocalists with great aplomb and King takes over for Lord, I’m Good For Something, which heralds the return of the harp and has a drumbeat for about only the second time so far. This organic Gospel is top drawer. King keeps the vocal for I Don’t Know What To Do and it is all over the place, even with drums again, but does come together in the end. The main point to push here is the passion of the artists and it is this passion that conquers all, especially in the vocal. They reprise the title track as an acoustic blues to finish with and have the harmonica wailing for New Orleans and the same deep vocal as the opener.
These guys need to be heard and appreciated – do it!
http://www.musicmaker.org/
David Blue.
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