Albums That Deserve Another Listen

Jimmy Reed Plays 12 String Guitar Blues (Vee-Jay LPS 1073)

The Blues Fan's Ultimate Singing In The Shower Album

Jimmy Reed Plays 12 String Guitar Blues is an album by blues musician Jimmy Reed released on the Vee-Jay label in 1963. The album contains instrumental versions of several of Reed's best known songs. It was promoted by Vee-Jay as being a brand new Jimmy Reed session, recorded in Chicago in 1963, and featuring Jimmy playing the 12-string guitar. The truth however soon emerged that only one of the 12 tracks was a new recording, the remainder were merely earlier recordings with Reed's vocals replaced by a 12-string guitar.

At that time Jimmy Reed LPs were not hard to find. Many were readily available at local record stores all over UK, Europe, USA, Australia, and any serious blues collector already had the originals of these Jimmy Reed songs. Therefore, 'Plays 12 String Guitar Blues' initially stirred little interest among the blues aficionados of the mid-late 1960s.

However, for many of us, this LP soon became a big favorite. We already knew all the lyrics to Jimmy Reed's biggest hits, having heard 'Big Boss Man' & 'Bright Lights Big City' & 'Baby What You Want Me To Do' & 'Take Out Some Insurance' numerous times, by Reed himself, and all the covers by countless other artists. So one by one we began to discover that 'Jimmy Reed Plays 12 String Guitar Blues' was a great sing-a-long album, especially in the shower, or while relaxing with a glass of wine in a hot tub at night. Furthermore, many of us fancied ourselves as harp players, and here we had instrumental backings to some of the best known blues songs, to play along with. The cherry on the cake was a harmonica is probably the only instrument one can take into the shower or bathtub and play away without ruining the instrument. In fact, quite the reverse, a wet harp sounds louder, cleaner, sharper. With 'Jimmy Reed Plays 12 String Guitar Blues' the bathroom blues singers of the late 60s/early 70s had struck gold.

01. Bright Lights Big City

02. St. Louis Blues

03. Blue Carnegie

04. New Chicago Blues

05. Big Boss Man

06. Hush Hush

07. Blues For Twelve Strings

08. Baby What You Want Me To Do

09. Boogie In The Dark

10. Take Out Some Insurance

11. Aw, Shucks

12. Close Together

Personnel:

Jimmy Reed – guitar, harmonica

Lefty Bates or Eddie Taylor – guitar

Marcus "Benjy" Johnson – bass

Earl Phillips or Morris Wilkerson – drums

Unknown musician - 12-string guitar

Note: Included in the folder are text files with the lyrics for most of these tracks, plus the song keys and harp keys. So now there's no excuse. Put this album on, grab your A & Bb harmonicas, jump in the shower or bathtub, and sing away to your heart's content.

"I'm going up, I'm going down, I'm goin' up, down, down, up, anyway ya wanna, let it roll, yeah, yeah, yeah..."

And a special thanks to BluzBug for providing a copy of the 2000 CD Reissue Collectables COL-CD-7127.

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