Baby Ain't That Love: Texas & Tennessee Sessions 1964-1974

by Clarence "Frogman" Henry

Overview

Ace's 2015 compilation kicks off with Clarence "Frogman" Henry's signature tune "Ain't Got No Home," but it's not the familiar hit version released on Chess' Argo imprint in 1956. It's a version Henry cut for Parrot Records eight years later, a subsidiary of London Records that is perhaps better understood in this context as an East Texas outpost of the Crescent City, a place where Henry could hunker down with Crazy Cajun record man Huey P. Meaux as they set about re-creating the feel of Clarence's Argo records. Some of these recordings have shown up on various recordings over the years but they've never been paired with the sides Henry made for the Nashville-based Dial in the late '60s, nor have they been released alongside early-'70s sessions Clarence cut for Meaux, who put these songs out on his short-lived American Pla-Boy label. It's a bit of a convoluted road for the easy-rolling Clarence "Frogman" Henry, complicated further by how some of these sides are unreleased, while others first showed up on the 1999 Edsel disc I Like That Alligator, Baby. Despite the messy discography-- through all the replications and cheerful attempts at riding the shifting fashions, whether he's doing a reggae version of "Sea Cruise" or ripping off the Sir Douglas Quintet's arrangement of "In the Jailhouse Now" with the tacit approval of Meaux -- Henry usually sounds just like his idol, Fats Domino, always warm and friendly, happily rolling along with the rhythms and making everything sound easy. Sometimes, the pleasure here is in hearing Henry lie back, to hear him luxuriate in the steady roll of the New Orleans rhythms, but he's so good at this that the departures that pop up toward the end of the collection - how "Hummin' a Heartache" itches to veer away from the Big Easy, the harder blues of "It Went to Your Head," the near straight-ahead country of "We'll Take Our Last Walk Tonight," the spaced-out rock-funk of "Rock Down in My Shoe," the proto-disco "Sock-A-Dilly Alabam" -- wind up making a stronger impression, even when there's no doubt that Clarence "Frogman" Henry was at his best when he stuck to New Orleans...even when he was recording that R&B in Texas and Tennessee. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	05/05/2015
Label:	Ace
UPC:	0029667071628

Tracks

1. Ain't Got No Home
2. The Glory of Love
3. Savin' My Love for You
4. Think It Over
5. Baby Ain't That Love
6. You Made Me Love You
7. Looking Back
8. Lovin' Cajun Style
9. Cheatin' Traces
10. You've Got a Lot to Learn
11. Sea Cruise
12. Long Lost and Worried
13. You My Darling, You
14. I Can't Take Another Heartache
15. Heartaches by the Number
16. Hummin' a Heartache
17. That's When I Guessed
18. This Time
19. Shake Your Moneymaker
20. It Went to Your Head
21. We'll Take Our Last Walk Tonight
22. You Can Have Her
23. Mathilda
24. Rock Down in My Shoe
25. In the Jailhouse Now
26. A Certain Girl
27. Hurt Control
28. Sock-A-Dilly Alabam

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Clarence "Frogman" Henry   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Joseph McCarthy   Composer
Pee Wee Maddux   Composer
Naomi Neville   Composer
Jimmie Rodgers   Composer
Marvin Rainwater   Composer
Nick Robbins   Mastering
Brook Benton   Composer
Gilles Petard   Photo Courtesy
Buddy Killen   Producer
George Khoury   Composer
Harlan Howard   Composer
Chips Moman   Composer
Billy Hill   Composer
William Cook   Composer
Huey Thierry   Composer
Bob Dunham   Photography
Bob McRee   Composer
Claude Putman Jr.   Composer
Huey Smith   Composer
James Monaco   Composer
Alton Valier   Composer
Ed Labunski   Composer
Leroy Martin   Composer
John Fitzmorris   Composer
Huey P. Meaux   Composer,Producer
Mac Rebennack   Composer
Doug Sahm   Composer
Ed Thomas   Composer
Tony Rounce   Liner Notes
Cliff Thomas   Composer
Belford Hendricks   Composer
Clarence "Frogman" Henry   Composer
Clyde Otis   Composer
Bobby Marchan   Composer
Paul Jeffrey   Package Design