Need a Shot: The Essential Recordings of Urban Blues by Various vente Artists NEUF

Tracks:
Sail on, Little Girl, Sail On - Bumble Bee Slim
Policy Wheel Blues - Kokomo Arnold
Trouble in Mind - Georgia White
Bad Luck Man - Harlem Hamfats
Louise Louise Blues - Johnnie "Geechie" Temple
Working Man (Doing the Best I Can) - Peetie Wheatstraw
Think You Need a Shot - Walter Davis
New Little Pretty Mama - Bill Gaither
Night Time Is the Right Time - Roosevelt Sykes
Lonesome Bedroom Blues - Curtis Jones
Back Door - Washboard Sam
Way Down in Louisiana - Casey Bill Weldon
Want to Woogie Some More - Merline Johnson
What Is That She Got? - Big Bill Broonzy
Lonesome Shack Blues - Memphis Minnie
Baby, Take a Chance with Me - Tampa Red
Key to the Highway - Jazz Gillum
Beer Drinking Woman - Memphis Slim
County Jail Blues - Big Maceo Merriweather
Goin Down Slow
Hes a Jelly Roll Baker - Lonnie Johnson
Aint No Business We Can Do - Doctor Clayton
Big Time Mama - Champion Jack Dupree
New Early in the Morning - John Williamson

Performer Notes:

• Composers: Curtis Jones; Doctor Clayton; Kokomo Arnold; Lonnie Johnson; Roosevelt Sykes; Big Bill Broonzy; Champion Jack Dupree.
• Personnel: Kansas Joe McCoy, Kokomo Arnold, Lonnie Johnson, Casey Bill Weldon (guitar, violin); Big Bill Broonzy (guitar, piano); Ikey Robinson (guitar); Curtis Jones, Peetie Wheatstraw, Roosevelt Sykes, Champion Jack Dupree (violin, piano); Doctor Clayton, Georgia White (violin); Odell Rand, Arnett Nelson (clarinet); Merline Johnson, Buster Bennett (saxophone); Horace Malcolm, Joshua Altheimer, Blind John Davis (piano); Fred Williams , Pearlis Williams (drums).
• Liner Note Author: Les Fancourt.
• Recording information: 1926-1942.
• Illustrator: Chris Myers.
• Unknown Contributor Role: Herb Morand.
• Featuring two-dozen tracks drawn from commercially released 78s of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Need a Shot is primarily a piano-based selection, although there is a fair amount of guitar and harmonica tossed in, and on occasion even drums, saxes, and clarinets. Labeled urban blues, these sides are only a little removed from their country blues roots, and pieces like Peetie Wheatstraws "Working Man (Doing the Best I Can)" (the melody line, a common one in the early blues, was used by Bob Dylan for his "Pledging My Time"), Roosevelt Sykes "Night Time Is the Right Time," and Washboard Sams funky and ragged "Back Door" played just as well in the rural jukes of the Deep South as they did in the bars up north. In spite of the subtitle, these 24 selections dont exactly add up to an essential survey of the early urban blues, but theres plenty of foot-stomping fun going on here and its hard to have a serious problem with that. ~ Steve Leggett

Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Country: USA

Studio/Live: Studio

Release Date: 20 May, 1997

Label: Indigo

Dimensions: 12.7 x 14 x 1.3 centimeters (0.06 kg)