CHICAGO/ The Blues Yesterday/ Volume 26

  

CHICAGO/ The Blues Yesterday/ Volume 26

 

 

           

Let's go back to our very popular series "Chicago/ The blues Yesterday"!

            For this 26^th Volume, we start with the great singer Arelean Brown (1924 – 1981) who enjoyed a local hit with her witty I'm a streaker. Born in Tchula, Ms from a very musical family that encompassed blues luminaries like Otis and Abe Smothers, Lee Shot Williams, George Brown (who played guitar with Howlin' Wolf), Arelean started singing professionally in Detroit where she would have first recorded sides hitherto unissued. She relocated in Chicago, got friend with Little Mack Simmons for whom she recorded a handful of 45s backed by first rate Chicago musicians like

Lonnie Brooks, L.V. Johnson and Scotty & The Rib Tips. Although she had to make a living outside music Arelean managed to play regularly in Chicago clubs and even tour the Southern States. Her untimely death from cancer prevented her to make more records and tour Europe where her singles were high praised with blues audiences. 

 
 I don't know very much about The Highway Man whose real name was/is (?) William Holland. A good impersonator of Howlin' Wolf he has recorded two singles of four Wolf's well known songs. He is backed by the good guitarist L.C. Roby who is reputed to be his son. According to Rob Ford, those tracks by The Highway Man are only part of a whole album which unfortunately has never been issued. Any more info about this artist and L.C. Roby would be very much needed.

             

Eddie Shaw (1937-2018) is a very well known and high rated singer, saxophone player, harp player, bandleader, composer who played with Howlin' Wolf for two decades and ran his band during the maestro's last years. After backing Ike Turner and Little Milton while still a teenager in Mississippi, Shaw joined Muddy Waters' band for some time in Chicago before teaming with Magic Sam (with whom he will record his first tracks under his own name) and then Howlin' Wolf. After the Wolf's death, Eddie Shaw kept his band together and toured the USA and Europe as The Wolf Gang, recording a vibrant tribute to the Bluesmen of Yesterday on his first LP produced by Howlin' Wolf's widow. I had the chance to see Shaw and his Wolf Gang in Washington DC during those years and he gave an extraordinary show with Hubert Sumlin at the top of his talent! After that, Shaw recorded many LPs and CDs (many for Red Rooster, the excellent Austrian's Wolf label! and one for the French Isabel), all of them being of a high level despite the absence of Hubert Sumlin. We have gathered all of Shaw's early tracks.

                                                                       Gérard Herzhaft

 

Eddie Shaw (right) with Bobby Fields and A.C. Reed c. 1965

 

ARELEAN BROWN, vcl; Buddy Scott, g; Little Mack Simmons, hca; The Rib Tips, band. Chicago, Ill. january 1971

01. Hello baby

02. I love my man

Arelean Brown, vcl; Lee Shot Williams, vcls; Little Mack Simmons, hca; Lonnie Brooks, g; Detroit Jr, pno/org; L.V. Johnson, g; Robert Covington, bs; Billy Davenport, dms. Chicago, Ill. 12 january 1974

03. Impeach me

04. You're gonna miss me around here

05. I'm a streaker baby

06. Why I love you

Arealean Brown, vcl; Little Mack Simmons, hca; Emmitt Brown, pno; Lonnie Brooks, g; L.V. Johnson, g; Buddy Scott, bs; Tommie J. Brown, dms. Chicago, Ill. 4 february 1974

07. I'm so blue

08. Pushing our love aside

09. I can't believe it

10. Chicken man

Arelean Brown, vcl; Lonnie Brooks, g; L.V. Johnson, g; Little Mack Simmons, hca; Buddy Scott, bs; Tommie J. Brown, dms. Chicago, Ill. 7 february 1974

11. Broken many hearts

12. I love my man

13. Eagle stirs her nest

Arelean Brown, vcl; band. Chicago, Ill. late 1974

14. Humpty dumpty

15. Gotta find my baby (fragment)

HIGHWAY MAN (William Holland), vcl; L.C. Roby, g; Eddie Shaw, t-sax; Billy Branch, hca; Detroit Jr, pno; Marilyn Love, bs; Ben Sandmer, dms. Chicago, Ill. 29 september 1979

16. Don't laugh at me

17. I walked from Dallas

18. Killing floor

19. Louise

EDDIE SHAW, t-sax; Magic Sam, g; Mac Thompson, bs; Bob Richey, dms. Chicago, Ill. 6 february 1966

20. Riding high

21. Blues for the West Side

22. Looking good

Eddie Shaw, vcl/t-sax; Shorty Stalworth, t-sax; Milton Houston, g; Willie Kent, bs; Little Addison, dms. Chicago, Ill. 2 august 1969

23. A hog with my horn

24. Shaw time

25. It's all right

26. Eddie's rock

Eddie Shaw, vcl/t-sax; Hubert Sumlin, g; Jimmy Dawkins, g; James Green, bs; Fred Below, dms. Chicago, Ill. 20 january 1971

27. Little by little

Eddie Shaw, vcl/t-sax; Detroit Jr, pno; Hubert Sumlin, g; Shorty Gilbert, bs; Chico Chism, dms. Chicago, Ill. 4 june 1973

28. I don't trust nobody

Eddie Shaw, vcl/t-sax; Detroit Jr, kbds; Hubert Sumlin, g; Shorty Gilbert, bs; Chico Chism, dms. Chicago, Ill. 29 june 1977

29. This little voice

30. I can't stop loving you

31. Big leg woman

32. I've got to tell somebody I

33. Blues men of yesterday I

34. Blues men of yesterday II

35. I've got to tell somebody II

Eddie Shaw, vcl/t-sax; Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, kbds; Hubert Sumlin, g; Shorty Gilbert, bs; Chico Chism, dms. Chicago, Ill. 18 january 1978

36. Out of bad luck

37. Stoop down baby

38. Sitting on top of the world

39. My baby's so ugly

40. It's alright