Bob's Chat
Todays "Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Records Volume 263" brings you 21 tracks dating from November 1940 with The Ink Spots recording "Java Jive", through to 2023 with some fiery blues from New Zealand guitarist John Williams, who once filled in for a dead drunk Jimmy Page during the Yardbird's 1967 tour of New Zealand. Other artists featured here include Earl King, Dinah Washington, James Brown, Piney Brown, The Temptations, Howlin' Wolf, Ritchie Valens, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Some of you may be surprised to see Ritchie Valens included here in a primarily blues/R&B collection, but many artists usually associated with other genres - such as country, rock 'n' roll, jazz - periodically crossed over and recorded blues/R&B. So when I come across such tracks I like to include them to bring extra variety into the compilations.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins is an artist I've always admired. He started his singing career in the early 1950s and was a very average R&B singer at a time when outstanding R&B singers/blues shouters like Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Amos Milburn, Charles Brown, and Jimmy Witherspoon were thick on the ground. So to distinguish himself from the pack, Screamin' Jay Hawkins developed his voodoo and skulls persona and enjoyed a level of success that he probably never would have achieved had he remained a straight R&B singer.
And "Hillbilly & Country Volume 159" brings you the 2nd volume in "All About The Gals", commencing with Cotton Henry & The Oklahoma Hillbillies' 1954 tribute to one of the most famous whores of all time: Eskimo Nell. Among the other well-known, plus a few lesser-known, artists in this collection are: Kitty Wells, Merle Haggard, Webb Pierce, Waylon Jennings, Eddy Arnold, Dale Evans, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, The Willis Brothers, Jamie Hilliard, and Floyd Tillman.
Don't forget to have a look in "Bob's Cellar" as our good friend cabledogg2 frequently shares some outstanding and generally hard to find albums there. If you take a copy of anything don't forget to thank cabledogg2 for his generosity.
Anyway, my friends dig in and enjoy.
