Blues
With too many pop-aimed "all-star" discs available, this union of journeyman players--featuring former Muddy Waters drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith--just doing their thing is refreshing. Especially since their thing is old-school ensemble-style Chicago blues, played with ironclad taste, feel, and authenticity. What's new is that Smith cedes the drum seat to his son Kenny for most of these songs and compliments his weathered, Arkansas-born country voice with his own capable harmonica playing. James Cotton ups the harp ante on two cuts, and fellow Waters vets bassist Calvin Jones, pianist Pinetop Perkins (who's 92), and guitarist Bob Margolin join in. Smith's own "Blues and Trouble," a spare, haunted duet with Margolin, is especially moving, right from their twined harmonica and slide-guitar introduction. Even on the band numbers there's a respect for space and sonic detail that's the work of masters delivering performances to support and complement each other. Somewhere in heaven, Muddy is smiling down at these men he mentored.
By Ted Drozdowski.
**
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith is best known as the longtime drummer in the Muddy Waters Band. With seven W.C. Handy awards for blues drumming and six Grammy awards with the Legendary Blues Band, Smith has already left his mark on the music world. At the age of 17, Willie ventured to Chicago where he saw his first Muddy Waters performance. He was soon hooked on the blues and decided to stay. He played in various groups before settling into the drummer's seat behind Muddy Waters.
**
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith is most often recalled as the longtime drummer in the Muddy Waters Band (he occupied the drum chair in the group from 1961 through 1980), but he was a harmonica player well before he was a drummer (his hard-charging harmonica can be heard on Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" from 1955) and he has led his own blues ensembles from time to time. Way Back, a pleasant set recorded in 2005 and produced by Bob Corritore, puts Smith front and center, and while no one would accuse him of being the equal of Muddy Waters as a bandleader, the 73-year-old Smith projects an intangible joy through the 11 songs here, half of which he wrote. Backed by what amounts to a superstar blues band, with the great, unsung Bob Margolin on guitar, a seemingly ageless 93-year-old Pinetop Perkins on piano, and guest shots by James Cotton and others, Smith delivers several variations on the good, old and undeniably durable Chicago blues shuffle, including the opener, a cover of Jimmy Reed's "Don't Say That No More" and a gleeful version of Waters' "Read Way Back," both of which feature Smith's steady and somehow endearingly fragile vocals, and his strong, unhurried harmonica lines. Smith does play drums on a pair of tracks, "Lowdown Blues" and "I Want You to Love Me (Trust Me)," as well, but most of the drumming is from Kenny "Beady Eyes" Smith, Willie's son. The clear highlight is a wonderfully simple, atmospheric, and haunting Willie Smith original, "Blues and Trouble," which builds powerfully on just Smith's vocal and harmonica and Margolin's brilliant electric slide guitar playing. Nothing here is going to reshape the contemporary blues world, and truthfully, these kinds of Chicago blues shuffles have been done a thousand times by a thousand blues bands. But maybe that's the point, actually. Smith is one of the musicians who helped create and shape those rhythms, and this album is evidence that he still knows what to do with them.
By Steve Leggett.
**
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith- (Vocals, Harmonica, Drums);
Frank Krakowski- (Guitar);
Bob Stroger, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones- (Bass Guitar);
Billy Flynn, Bob Margolin, Johnny Rapp- (Guitar);
James Cotton , Bob Corritore- (Harmonica);
Pinetop Perkins- (Piano);
Kenny Smith- (Drums).
**
01. Don't Say That No More 4:09
02. I Don't Trust You Man 4:18
03. Read Way Back 3:02
04. Tell Me Mama 4:04
05. If You Don't Believe I'm Leaving 3:41
06. Lowdown Blues 4:49
07. Woman's World 5:16
08. Don't Start Me Talkin' 4:14
09. Blues And Trouble 4:41
10. I Want You To Love Me (Trust Me) 2:38
11. Eye To Eye 6:36
**
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