Snooks EAGLIN - New Orleans Street Singer 1994

Snooks EAGLIN - New Orleans Street Singer 1994
Label: Storyville

Blues

Before he became a master interpreter of Crescent City rhythm and blues, and before David Bartholomew took him under his wing at Imperial records, Ford "Snooks" Eaglin took to the streets. While moonlighting behind New Orleans stars like Sugarboy Crawford, he specialized in an eclectic variety of acoustic folk songs and blues. So you won't find the fiery electric fretwork you've come to expect from Snooks on this album. But you will find subtler pleasures. At the time, Snooks (blind since his early childhood) was absorbing the gospel and rhythm and blues that he heard around him. He has given the songs on this CD his own warm and very personal treatment. Tracks like Ray Charles's "I Got a Woman," "Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes," and "Don't You Lie to Me" offer a mix of nimble fingerpicking and strumming backed by simple washboard accompaniment. But the sound quality isn't too great, and there is a sameness to his sound once you reach the last track. Still, these songs are an interesting chapter in the story of a New Orleans blues legend, one who sounds more vital with each passing year.
By Ken Hohman.
**
Ford "Snooks" Eaglin's first released recordings, the ones collected here, suggested to the world that Eaglin was a great lost country blues player when he was, in fact, an excellent electric guitar player and a gospel-influenced singer who much preferred playing R&B with a band. When folklorist Harry Oster heard Eaglin busking with his guitar on a street in the French Quarter in 1958, he whisked him over to Louisiana State University and recorded the tracks collected here, either assuming that Eaglin was a folk artist or possibly even asking him to portray one for the sake of the recording. Either way, New Orleans Street Singer was a revelation when it was released by Folkways Records a year later in 1959, presenting to the world a gifted guitar player and a naturally soulful singer who brought a kind of jazzy New Orleans feel and groove to the folk-blues standards he was covering. The album is no less a revelation in the 21st century, although hindsight allows listeners to realize that the folk stance was probably more Oster's preference than Eaglin's. The guitar work is quick and fluid, with lead bursts that surprise and delight, continually settling on unexpected but highly effective chordal resolves, and the singing throughout is steady and informed, sounding a bit like Ray Charles, with tinges of both gospel and jazz phrasing. In Eaglin's hands traditional fare like "Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes" (a variant of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down") become reborn and re-formed into definitive versions.
By Steve Leggett. Allmusic.
**
01. Alberta 2:41
02. That's Alright 2:13
03. Malaguena 3:41
04. When They Ring Them Golden Bells 3:37
05. Remember Me 3:27
06. Fly Right Back Baby 4:04
07. I Don't Know 1:57
08. Mean Old World 3:39
09. I Must See Jesus 3:37
10. She's One Black Rat 3:14
11. Don't You Lie To Me 2:16
12. Well, I Had My Fun 3:07
13. Brown Skin Woman 3:47
14. Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes 2:00
15. Who's Been Foolin' You 2:27
16. When Shadows Fall 1:44
17. One More Drink 2:47
18. I Got A Woman 3:13
19. Come Back, Baby 2:38
20. Trouble In Mind 2:50
21. I Got My Questionaire 3:26
22. The Drifter Blues 3:51
23. Every Day I Have The Blues 3:52
24. A Thousand Miles From Home 2:13
25. I'm Lookin For A Woman 2:24
**
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Snooks EAGLIN - Teasin' You 1992

Snooks EAGLIN - Teasin' You 1992
Label: Black Top

Blues

Always looking for blues guitarists, I was fortunate to come across this album and the great original cuts it contains. I hadn't heard of Eaglin out here on the west coast but was bowled over by his unique voice and guitar playing. This is pure, unfettered blues as infectious as can be. "Don't Take It So Hard", should be a required listening for all who love original, regional blues. After Mike Bloomfield, Snooks is right in there.
By  David Caselli.
**
When they refer to consistently amazing guitarist Snooks Eaglin as a human jukebox in his New Orleans hometown, they're not dissing him in the slightest. The blind Eaglin is a beloved figure in the Crescent City, not only for his gritty, Ray Charles-inspired vocal delivery and wholly imaginative approach to the guitar, but for the seemingly infinite storehouse of oldies that he's liable to pull out on-stage at any second -- often confounding his bemused band in the process! His earliest recordings in 1958 for Folkways presented Eaglin as a solo acoustic folk-blues artist with an extremely eclectic repertoire. His dazzling fingerpicking was nothing short of astonishing, but he really wanted to be making R&B with a band. Imperial Records producer Dave Bartholomew granted him the opportunity in 1960, and the results were sensational. Eaglin's fluid, twisting lead guitar on the utterly infectious "Yours Truly" (a Bartholomew composition first waxed by Pee Wee Crayton) and its sequel, "Cover Girl," was unique on the New Orleans R&B front, while his brokenhearted cries on "Don't Slam That Door" and "That Certain Door" were positively mesmerizing. Eaglin stuck with Imperial through 1963, when the firm closed up shop in New Orleans, without ever gaining national exposure. Eaglin found a home with Black Top Records in the 1980s, releasing four albums with the label, including 1988's Out of Nowhere (re-released on CD by P-Vine in 2007) and 1995's Soul's Edge. In 2002 he released The Way It Is. A year later P-Vine put out Soul Train from Nawlins, an album drawn from a live set Eaglin did at 1995's Park Tower Blues Festival. A collection of Eaglin's earliest recordings, all done on acoustic guitar, was released in 2005 by Smithsonian Folkways as New Orleans Street Singer.
By Bill Dahl, All Music Guide.
**
01. Baby, Please Come Home (3:36)
02. Soul Train (4:04)
03. When It Rains It Pours (3:04)
04. Teasin' You (3:29)
05. Dizzy Miss Lizzy (3:15)
06. Black Night (3:27)
07. Sleepwalk (3:24)
08. Travelin' Mood (3:23)
09. Jesus Will Fix It (3:36)
10. Don't Take It So Hard (3:53)
11. Heavy Juice (2:57)
12. Lilly May (3:07)
13. My Love is Strong (2:43)
14. Red Beans (3:56)
**
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Snooks EAGLIN - Baby, You Can Get Your Gun 1987

Snooks EAGLIN - Baby, You Can Get Your Gun  1987
Label: Black Top
Audio CD (February 18, 1997)

Blues

This is a fantastic CD. I love all the Blacktop stuff. I've come to the conclusion that Snooks is my favorite guitar player/singer in an R & B vein. I've loved Buddy Guy, B.B., Freddie, Albert K, Albert C and many others, but Snooks is very different from them. He's a singer/arranger/rhythm-lead player and draws from a much wider variety of song styles than most people categorized as blues. His ability to intersperse totally driving rhythm, fills and leads is uncanny and I don't know anyone who does it better. You'll hear great blues licks, a few slinky diminished jazz runs, slamming funk rhythm guitar, beautiful Ray Charles-influenced vocals and Snooks' inimitable patter and sense of humor. When I hear Snooks, there's never a moment where I think "Oh, I can't wait for the solo," or "I don't like this part." I love the whole thing beginning to end.

I just saw Snooks in New Orleans at Jazz Fest 2007 and at the Rock n Bowl. At the Rock n Bowl he said his arthritis was acting up and you could tell. I've never heard him struggle with the guitar like that in 15 years of live listening. Amazingly, the next day at JF, he just tore the Blues Tent down. He was amazing overall and his guitar playing was outstanding with no residue of his hard night the night before. If you ever have a chance to catch Snooks, do it. People just went nuts. The place was packed and people were screaming their bloody heads off for Snooks, a well-deserved response. We should all be hitting it like that at 71. There's nobody else like him. You'll walk out of the show just grinning ear to ear and happier to be alive.
By  Michael M. Bruns.
**
 Eaglin is accompanied by Fats Domino’s rhythm section plus David Lastie, Ron Levy and Ronnie Earl on his first Black Top album
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Snooks Eaglin, the legendary New Orleans blues and R&B singer and guitarist, passed away on February 18 of this year. That city’s Offbeat magazine described him as “a one-of-a-kind guitar player who could play an unbelievable run with his amazing (seemingly double-jointed) fingers in a repertoire that ranged from Beethoven to R&B; thus his moniker: ‘The Human Jukebox.’” Eaglin, who first recorded in 1958, began a five-album run on Black Top Records with 1987’s Baby, You Can Get Your Gun, which All Music.com awarded 4½ stars. The album will be reissued on Hep Cat Records through Collectors’ Choice Music on April 21.

Other Black Top reissues set for April 21 are Ronnie Earle & the Broadcasters’ Peace of Mind and Deep Blues, Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets’ Sins and The James Harman Band’s Cards on the Table.

Fird “Snooks” Eaglin was born in New Orleans in 1936. Like his contemporary, the late James Booker, Snooks delighted in guiding his listeners through unexpected musical labyrinths. On Baby, You Can Get Your Gun, his first Black Top release, Snooks voyages from blues at its most sophisticated, covering Percy Mayfield’s “Baby Please,” to blues of the most nasty, suggestive variety, on “Nobody Knows.” There are shuffles done in a style unique to Snooks — “Mary Joe” and “Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!” (originally cut by Earl King for Ace Records). There is the James Brown-inspired “Drop the Bomb!” and a tribute to the Ventures called “Profidia.” There’s a nod to the sanctified realm of gospel on Smiley Lewis’ “That Certain Door,” and both “Oh Sweetness” and Pretty Girls Everywhere” are evocative of the music Snooks created during his association with Professor Longhair. (Snooks abruptly exited an upstate New York recording session with ‘Fess during the ‘70s because the sound of snow falling kept the blind guitarist awake all night.)

Snooks’ musical career has been likewise eclectic. He was the lead guitarist in 16-year- old Allen Toussaint’s first band, The Flamingoes. In 1958, he was recorded by folklorists Harry Oster and Richard Allen under the direction of the eminent band leader Dave Bartholomew. Snooks recorded ten singles for Lewis Chudd’s Imperial Records from 1960-61. Then, in 1974, he was the featured guitarist on the Wild Magnolias’ debut album of revisionist Mardi Gras Indian songs. For more than three decades, Snooks had been one of the Crescent City’s most popular entertainers. In a town dominated by awesome pianists, he was the ruling guitarist.

Snooks’ accompanists on Baby, You Can Get Your Gun included Joe “Smokey” Johnson and bassist Erving Charles, Jr., otherwise known as the rhythm section of Fats Domino’s orchestra; David Lastie, who supplied the sax breaks on his uncle Jessie Hill’s 1960 hit “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” (and is part of a notable Ninth Ward musical family); Ron Levy, who spent seven years at the piano and the Hammond B-3 in B.B. King’s touring combo and has recently been featured with Roomful of Blues, and Levy’s long-time close friend Ronnie Earl, whose guitar propelled Roomful of Blues and a notable solo career.
By Cary Baker.
**
01. You Give Me Nothing But the Blues  2:37
02. Baby Please  3:18
03. Oh Sweetness  3:17
04. Profidia  2:22
05. Lavinia  3:37
06. Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!  2:52
07. Drop the Bomb!  2:57
08. That Certain Door  3:13
09. Mary Joe  2:32
10. Nobody Knows  2:16
11. Pretty Girls Everywhere  3:35
**
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