Search - Various Artists :: When the Sun Goes Down 4: That's All Right

Every Cut Here is True Blues Gem!

10/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"That's All Right is the fourth volume of the 4-part CD series, When The Sun Goes Down. This disc is my personal favorite of the series, perhaps because the tracks here are the most recent chronologically. Or it could be simply because every cut here is a true Blues gem. From Doc Clayton's "Pearl Harbor Blues," which opens the disc, to "Get Rich Quick," a wonderful Jump Blues from a young Little Richard that wraps up the series, there are 25 more great tracks to enjoy.Doc Clayton's two tracks illustrate why his strong, high tenor voice was such an influence on B.B. King. "My Buddy Blues," by The Five Breezes, features a smooth and melancholy-sounding vocal harmony ensemble that includes a 25-year-old Willie Dixon. There are more great harmonies on The Cats & A Fiddle's "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water." There is the classic "Worried Life Blues" by Big Maceo, the man who took Otis Spann under his wing when he came to Chicago in the late `40s, becoming Spann's biggest influence on piano. There is a veritable bounty of more great piano from Memphis Slim, Pete Johnson & Albert Ammons, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boyd (doing a cool ode to the Windy City), Roosevelt Sykes and Piano Red. There are three tracks from Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, including the original "That's All Right," the song that helped start all that Rockabilly business with Elvis. Add a classic from Robert Lockwood and a couple more from Tampa Red and you've already got quite the compilation. But two of my favorite selections here include the ultra-smooth and hip "Why Don't You Do Right" by Lil Green with Big Bill Broonzy on guitar, and "How Blue Can You Get (Downhearted)" by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers with Oscar Moore and featuring piano and vocal work from Billy Valentine. Exquisite stuff...For the most raucous and jumpin' track in the whole series, though, you have the swinging, horn-driven "Get The Mop," by Henry "Red" Allen to get your pulse pumpin'. The pace of the piano and drums is absolutely hectic. I highly recommend this disc to everyone wanting to search out the best in Blues from the `40s, with a few early `50s sides, also.Don "T-Bone" Erickson for BluesWax.com."

The blues had a baby and they named it rock 'n' roll

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 12/05/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the fourth volume in Bluebird's "When The Sun Goes Down" series, 72 minutes worth of excellently remastered early blues sides from the RCA Victor label.



The sound is generally very good considering that all of these songs were committed to tape between 1939-1955, i.e just before the reign of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf on the blues scene. Austin Powell (billed as "The Cats & A Fiddle") perform a melodic "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water", a young Memphis Slim pops up doing "Grinder Man", and Little Richard (yes, that Little Richard) is here, doing a driving 1951 R&B waxing called "Get Rich Quick" four years before his commercial breakthrough.



Other highlights include the classic and endlessly covered "Worried Life Blues" by Big Maceo Merriweather, a delightful instrumental, "Walkin' The Boogie" by Albert Ammons and Big Joe Turner's pianist Pete Johnson, Eddie Boyd's "Chicago Is Just That Way", and a pretty tough acoustic cover of Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom" by none other than Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, the man behind Presley's "That's Alright Mama". That one is here as well, by the way, although not by Elvis Presley.

Slide guitarist Hudson Whittaker (Tampa Red) does a great "Sweet Little Angel" (later associated with B.B. King) and a muscular "When Things Go Wrong With You", recorded by Elmore James as "It Hurts Me Too". And while James's rendition of "Look On Yonder Wall" stil stands as the ultimate take on that song, this early recording by harpist Bill "Jazz" Gillum is great as well, as is the driving "Ride And Roll" by Sonny Terry, and Lillian Green's gentle, jazzy "Who Don't You Do Right".



This is a nicely varied and well annotated compilation, the best in the series (alongside vol. 3). There are four volumes in all, available individually or as a box set, plus six volumes dedicated to individual artists (like Blind Willie McTell, Arthur Crudup, and Leadbelly, whose entry is one of the very best), and an eleventh volume of gospel music titled "Sacred Roots Of The Blues".

Casual listeners may feel that this is still a bit too far from Muddy Waters and B.B. King for their liking, but the whole series, and this disc in particular, is highly recommended to everyone and anyone who is interested in the developement of the blues.

4 1/2 stars."