Need a Shot: The Essential Recordings of Urban Blues

by Need A Shot: Essential Recordings Urban Blues / Va

Overview

Featuring two-dozen tracks drawn from commercially released 78s of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Need a Shot is primarily a piano-based selection, although there is a fair amount of guitar and harmonica tossed in, and on occasion even drums, saxes, and clarinets. Labeled urban blues, these sides are only a little removed from their country blues roots, and pieces like Peetie Wheatstraw's "Working Man (Doing the Best I Can)" (the melody line, a common one in the early blues, was used by Bob Dylan for his "Pledging My Time"), Roosevelt Sykes' "Night Time Is the Right Time," and Washboard Sam's funky and ragged "Back Door" played just as well in the rural jukes of the Deep South as they did in the bars up north. In spite of the subtitle, these 24 selections don't exactly add up to an essential survey of the early urban blues, but there's plenty of foot-stomping fun going on here and it's hard to have a serious problem with that. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	05/27/1997
Label:	INDIGO
UPC:	0766126404022

Tracks

1. Sail on, Little Girl, Sail On  -  Bumble Bee Slim
2. Policy Wheel Blues  - Kokomo Arnold
3. Trouble in Mind  - Richard M. Jones  - Georgia White
4. Bad Luck Man  -  Harlem Hamfats  - Kansas Joe McCoy  - Herb Morand
5. Louise Louise Blues  - Johnnie "Geechie" Temple
6. Working Man (Doing the Best I Can)  - Peetie Wheatstraw
7. Think You Need a Shot  - Walter Davis
8. New Little Pretty Mama  - Bill Gaither
9. Night Time Is the Right Time  - Roosevelt Sykes
10. Lonesome Bedroom Blues  - Curtis Jones
11. Back Door  -  Washboard Sam
12. Way Down in Louisiana  - Casey Bill Weldon
13. Want to Woogie Some More  - Big Bill Broonzy  - Merline Johnson
14. What Is That She Got?  - Big Bill Broonzy
15. Lonesome Shack Blues  - Kansas Joe McCoy  -  Memphis Minnie
16. Baby, Take a Chance with Me  -  Tampa Red
17. Key to the Highway  - Big Bill Broonzy  - Jazz Gillum  - Charles Segar
18. Beer Drinking Woman  -  Memphis Slim
19. County Jail Blues  - Big Maceo Merriweather  - Major Merriweather
20. Goin' Down Slow
21. He's a Jelly Roll Baker  - Lonnie Johnson
22. Ain't No Business We Can Do  -  Doctor Clayton
23. Big Time Mama  - Champion Jack Dupree
24. New Early in the Morning  - John Williamson  - Sonny Boy Williamson

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Roosevelt Sykes   Primary Artist,Piano,Violin
Lonnie Johnson   Primary Artist,Guitar,Violin
Memphis Minnie   Primary Artist
Memphis Slim   Primary Artist
Merline Johnson   Primary Artist,Saxophone
Big Bill Broonzy   Primary Artist,Piano,Guitar
Jazz Gillum   Primary Artist
Walter Davis   Primary Artist
Washboard Sam   Primary Artist
Big Maceo Merriweather   Primary Artist
Kokomo Arnold   Primary Artist,Guitar,Violin
Bumble Bee Slim   Primary Artist
Georgia White   Primary Artist,Violin
Harlem Hamfats   Primary Artist
Bill Gaither   Primary Artist
John Williamson   Primary Artist
Curtis Jones   Primary Artist,Piano,Violin
Doctor Clayton   Primary Artist,Violin
Tampa Red   Primary Artist
Casey Bill Weldon   Primary Artist,Guitar,Violin
Champion Jack Dupree   Primary Artist,Piano,Violin
Johnnie "Geechie" Temple   Primary Artist
Peetie Wheatstraw   Primary Artist,Piano,Violin
Arnett Nelson   Clarinet
Ransom Knowling   Bass
Buster Bennett   Saxophone
Alfred Elkins   Bass
John Lindsay   Bass
Jesse Ellery   Bass
Bill Settles   Bass
Pearlis Williams   Drums
Wilson Swain   Bass
Horace Malcolm   Piano
Andrew Harris   Bass
Ikey Robinson   Guitar
Fred Williams   Drums
Odell Rand   Clarinet
Blind John Davis   Piano
Kansas Joe McCoy   Guitar,Violin
Joshua Altheimer   Piano

Technical Credits

Roosevelt Sykes   Composer,Performer
Peetie Wheatstraw   Performer
Richard M. Jones   Composer
Memphis Minnie   Performer
Memphis Slim   Performer
Merline Johnson   Performer
Big Bill Broonzy   Performer,Composer
Jazz Gillum   Performer
Walter Davis   Composer,Performer
Washboard Sam   Performer
Kokomo Arnold   Composer,Performer
Curtis Jones   Composer,Performer
Bumble Bee Slim   Performer
Georgia White   Performer
Harlem Hamfats   Performer
Sonny Boy Williamson I   Composer,Performer
Herb Morand   Composer
Major Merriweather   Composer
Chris Myers   Illustrations
Bill Gaither   Performer
Sonny Boy Williamson II   Performer
Big Maceo Merriweather   Performer
Doctor Clayton   Composer,Performer
Kansas Joe McCoy   Composer
Tampa Red   Performer
Casey Bill Weldon   Performer
Charles Segar   Composer
Champion Jack Dupree   Composer,Performer
Les Fancourt   Liner Notes
Johnnie "Geechie" Temple   Performer
Lonnie Johnson   Composer,Performer