Search - Jimmy Reed :: Big Boss Man / Down in Virginia

The Boss Man

Anthony S. Prowse | Melbourne, Australia | 03/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Jimmy recorded, I think, four good albums for Bluesway in the latter part of his career. If memory serves me correctly, Bluesway did release another, highly forgetable album, after Reed left the label. These four are available in two-fer packages and are both recommended. I am a BIG Jimmy Reed fan and I think that "Down In Virginia" is his best album by a long shot. His Vee-Jay work is outstanding and where just about all of his hits came from but the Bluesway material is vastly underated by many Reed afficianados.These albums still have Al Smith producing, Mary Lee Reed, Smith and Jimmy writing the material and Eddie Taylor running the band and arrangements. What really stands out though is the great Wayne Bennett on lead guitar. All the regular Reed trademarks are here, the lazy lopping beats, the high-pitch harmonica of Reed, the slurred vocals, the fade-ins and outs and the 12, 8 and 16 bars all in the same song!! PLUS, the wonderful, sympathetic guitar runs by Wayne Bennett. These two albums contain as many "classic" Reed songs a just about any other of his albums; "Sugar, Sugar Woman", "Light My Fire", "Slow Walkin' Mama", "Down In Virginia" and so on. Note that the first track "Give Up And Let me Go" is repeated as the second track "I'm Leavin'". Such is the sameness of Jimmy Reed's material that I didn't notice this until about the third listen!!!! But then, as one scribe puts it "....listening to Jimmy Reed is a lot like eating peanuts; they're all pretty much the same but you can't stop at just one". Couldn't have put it better myself. If you are a Jimmy Reed fan and don't have this material, please give it a listen and judge for yourself."

Big Biss Man/Down in Virginia

Rawleigh Hurt | Korea | 02/29/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album means alot to me because of the music itself, and also because my father put me onto it. I guess it just caught my ear. Thanks"