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
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