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Early Hour Blues
Pee Wee Crayton
Early Hour Blues
Genres: Blues, Jazz, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (11) - Disc #1

If there's a pantheon for unsung blues heroes, Pee Wee Crayton belongs in it. Like T-Bone Walker, whose style Crayton's closely resembles, he came from Texas, heading for the West Coast early on. Though he recorded prolifi...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Pee Wee Crayton
Title: Early Hour Blues
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Blind Pig
Release Date: 6/22/1999
Genres: Blues, Jazz, Pop
Styles: Regional Blues, Texas Blues, West Coast Blues, Electric Blues
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 019148505223

Synopsis

Amazon.com
If there's a pantheon for unsung blues heroes, Pee Wee Crayton belongs in it. Like T-Bone Walker, whose style Crayton's closely resembles, he came from Texas, heading for the West Coast early on. Though he recorded prolifically throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, he never quite garnered the attention he deserved. That's a shame, as Early Hour Blues--collecting several cuts from Crayton's final two albums--attests. The material is an appealing mix; Texas and West Coast, instrumental and vocal, sensual ballads and uptempo rockers, the latter of which display some impressive guitar gymnastics. Rod Piazza, who helped produce the albums from which these songs are taken, does harp duty on several tracks. This aptly titled collection is evocative of a late night in a bar, somewhere where last call happens at around 4 a.m., and is definitely worth a listen or several. --Genevieve Williams

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CD Reviews

Blind Pig Screwed Up This Reissue
Andrew T. Olson | La Crose, WI | 02/07/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)

""Early Hours Blues" consists mostly of material Pee Wee Crayton recorded in L.A. with Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers in 1983. First released on the miniscule Murray Brothers label under the title "Make Room For Pee Wee." A program of hard-swinging jump blues and smokey blues ballads, it was good stuff indeed. Crayton was in terrific form, and Rod Piazza & Co.(augmented by a crack horn section)were predictably right on the money. Sadly, Blind Pig records chose to replace several of the original release's more compelling numbers with inferior tracks cut just a few months before Crayton's 1985 death. On these instantly dated faux-funk numbers, Pee Wee's guitar and vocals are shaky, at best. To make matters worse, Crayton is provided with unsympathetic support from a crew of musicians who were serving as Doug MacLeod's band at the time. Blind Pig's butchery of this reissue puzzles, considering the bang-up job they did with the reissue of George Smith's Murray Bros. record."