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WILLIE BUCK: The Life I Love She's All Right/ How Can I Be Nice To You/ I Live The Life I Love/ I've Got A Right To Love My Baby/ Champagne And Reefer/ There's A Time/ Everything Gonna Be Alright/ Sweet Sixteen/ Found My Baby Gone/ Nineteen Years Old/ I Want You To Love Me/ Got My Mojo Workin'/ Sugar Sweet*/ Don't Go No Further*/ Checkin' Up On My Baby*/ Just To Be With You*/ Blues Had A Baby* (* = previously unissued) Now this is a guy who I must admit is a new name to me. Willie Buck (real name Willie Crawford, born in Houston, Mississippi in 1937) was introduced to music via guitar playing sisters, the first professional blues man he saw was B.B. King, who played at a local juke joint. Buck moved to Chicago in 1953 and as a (no doubt under age teenager) managed to wangle his way into places like Smitty's Corner and Pepper's Lounge where Muddy Waters was playing. He occasionally got up and did a number or two but the life of a bluesman had to take second place to working as a mechanic. Through the 1950s and 1960s he confined himself to occasionally sitting in at local clubs, however around 1970 he started putting his own bands together and playing gigs on the south and west sides. He recorded several singles, and on the 4th of October, 1982 recorded the first twelve tracks presented here and issued an album (titled 'I Wanna Be Loved') on his own Bar-Bare label; with limited distribution and promotion, in time it was to become a collectors item. As the blues scene was at something of a low ebb at the time, Willie was able to hire the cream of the crop, and this LP features John Primer and Louis Myers on guitar, Dave Myers on bass, Dimestore Fred and Little Mac Simmons on harp, Big Moose Walker on piano, and Jerry Porter on drums. Willie Buck is heavily steeped in the tradition of Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Willie Dixon, and his first LP draws heavily on the classic Chicago blues repertoire. As you'd expect, a lot of what he does is familiar, however he is a real old fashioned (in the best sense of the term!) Blues (with a capital B) singer, confidently handling numbers like Muddy's 'She's All Right' and 'Champagne And Reefer', Dixon's 'Live The Life I Love', Little Walter's 'Everything Gonna Be Alright' and Preston Foster's 'Got My Mojo Workin'. His original compositions, 'How Can I Be Nice To You' and 'There's A Time', are both elegantly composed old school Chicago blues numbers. Big Moose Walker, something of a forgotten man in the pantheon of Chicago piano players is quite superb, and Primer, the Myers brothers, and the harp players, as befits their pedigree, are always on the money. The remaining five tracks come from a live set recorded in 1984 at Robert's 500 Room in Chicago. Backing band is listed as the same as on the LP, except Jodie North replaces Porter on drums, and Dimestore Fred does not appear. As befits non-professional recordings, the sound quality is not top notch, the vocal being a wee bit low in the mix, and the piano is one of those curious sounding electric jobs. Buck digs in on covers of material by Mel London, Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bernard Roth and Muddy. This is a journeyman blues artist doing what he does best for a local crowd, who respond to each number enthusiastically. Willie is still going strong; he's just the sort of blues man who could wow the crowd at Burnley or somewhere similar. Let's hope that Delmark can get him in the studio with a good band and a bunch of new material, I just bet there is a great CD in there just waiting to burst forth! Phil Wight The Treniers: Rock The Mannish Boys: Shake For Me Christine Kittrell: Call Her Name Tail Dragger: Live At Rooster's Lounge Ray Bailey: Resurrection Joe Louis Walker: Between A Rock And The Blues Al 'Cake' Wichard Sextette: Cake Walkin' Blues Belles With Attitude Alabama Mike: Day To Day SAMPLE ARTICLES The Life Story of Louisiana Red - by Guido van Rijn Stomp The Grinder Down: Texas Blues Piano Part 1 - by Michael Hortig A Brief Chat with Count Rockin' Sidney - by Norman Darwen Lightnin' Hopkins' First Recordings - by Alan Govenar The Party Blues: Brownie McGhee vs. the FBI - by Chris Smith Little Willie Littlefield Interview - by Norman Darwen 'Rejected No More': Flora Molton Interview - by Norman Darwen It's The Business! (Freddie King) - by Neil Slaven "And now, here's one by the late, great Johnny Ace ..." - by Luke Dormehl The Don & Dewey Story - by Steve Propes Pagination Error Issue number 237 contained a pagination error. Instead of page 38 being printed, a duplicate page 42 was used. For those who need it, here is a PDF of the missing page. |
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