Junior Wells

Album Reviews:

1965: Hoodoo Man Blues (by Junior Wells‘ Chicago Blues Band) 9/10

1974: Drinkin‘ TNT ’n‘ Smokin‘ Dynamite –> see Buddy Guy & Junior Wells 5/10

1990: Harp Attack! [by James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell & Billy Branch] 4/10

Hoodoo Man Blues

I’m not doing too bad, baby, you know, I ain’t got no brand new bag

The definition, the archetype, the proto-example of electric Chicago blues of the mid-1960s – but there is something hopelessly and recklessly cool about this particular set of songs. Is it the fact that Junior’s harp dominates Buddy’s guitar, creating a laidback drawl instead of a piercing articulation in the solos? Is it the fact that Junior’s vocal delivery is how you’d imagine James Brown’s mean, charismatic uncle? Is it the variety of blues patterns they display (just check out the quasi-tango of the album highlight „We’re Ready“)? It’s all of those things and more, of course. Wells has an inescapable presence on this record, Buddy Guy supplies subtle and acute licks all over without actually taking center stage, and the sound is somehow all blues. You can hear how Junior and Buddy quote the popular new music, funk – I wasn’t joking about James Brown –, but mainly to show how that funk had grown directly out of their own kind of rhythm&blues earlier on. The minor drawback weirdly is that it so obviously plays like a classic – it’s hard to imagine a world where someone listened to this for the first time, just slowly realising how on point this stuff is.

Harp Attack!

By James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell & Billy Branch

Collaboration Album: for Completists, 4/10 | Released: 1990 | Specific Genre: Electric Chicago Harp Blues | Main Genre: Blues, Electric Blues | Label: Alligator

Can’t get it, you know you can’t get it

Standard Chicago blues-fare with a gimmick: Four eminent blues harpists trade solos and some vocals. If the title reminds somewhat of a B-movie, that’s not far off. Jovial, but lackluster boogie rhythms, passing by like a play-along-track for the stars to lay their harp moves over – but it’s not even as if the tracks where really centered around the harp as an important and manifestly foundational blues instrument, it’s just a rhythm track plus different harps. This is a stylistic choice, as the backing band is actually fantastic (Lucky Peterson and Ray Allison, just to mention two). The album just never catches fire, and while it’s actually cool to have a record where you can directly compare harp styles (if you need convincing that it is an extremely versatile instruments with recognizable idioms when played by the greats), the sound does not get anything out of quadrupling harps beyond that. It’s blues musicians cruising in a standardized style, no harm done. A down-trodden, fresh take on the classic “My Eyes Keep Me in Trouble” and the slow-burning, nine-minute soul blues of “Black Night” – where the harps stretch out – are the song picks.

Hoodoo Man Blues

Harp Attack!

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