Junior Wells - 'Messin' With The Kid 1957-1963' & 'Hoodoo Man Blues'

Junior Wells is the direct musical descendant of modern Blues' harmonica legends John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, "Sonny Boy" Williamson II (Rice Miller) and "Little Walter" Jacobs.  A devotee of blues, funk and soul music, Junior developed a style incorporating all of those genres, and was a consummate stage.

Born Amos Blakemore in 1934, Junior was raised on a farm in rural West Memphis and Marion, Arkansas.  He became intensely interested in the music flowing from the fertile blues culture of Memphis and learned harmonica from his cousin Little Junior Parker.  After his parents separated, the wild and rebellious Junior moved with his mother to Chicago in 1946.  There he discovered that music would be the most important thing in his life.  His teenage years were spent playing hooky from school, and practicing his harmonica.  His interest in the local blues musicians found the underage Junior sneaking into various clubs, vying to "sit-in" with bands.  Junior's earliest such escapade was in 1948 sneaking into the C & T Lounge where Tampa Red and Johnny Jones let the young harpist show his skills.  A now famous incident was when Junior convinced his sister and her then-boyfriend, a Chicago policeman, to escort him to Sam's Ebony Lounge where the Muddy Waters band (with Little Walter Jacobs and Jimmy Rogers) were playing.  As Junior tells it, "I went up to Muddy and told him I played harp. Muddy said he'd let me try." Little Walter said, "That little shrimp?" "They stood me on a coke box to reach the mike, and I made $45 in tips". When Little Water left the Muddy Waters, Junior was called to replace him. Junior stayed on with Waters until 1952.

'Messin' With The Kid 1957-1963' is a compilation by Paula Records and released in 2014.  These are the major sides Junior recorded for Mel London's Profile, Chief, and Age labels, they represent the earliest "Juke" sides of Junior Wells recorded in Chicago.  Sidemen on these sessions include guitarist Earl Hooker, saxophonist A.C. Reed, keyboardists Otis Spann and Johnny "Big Moose" Walker and Popsy Dixon.  These are raw, greasy, unfiltered, and passionate blues.  Junior's vocals are strong throughout, and the sidemen "tear the roof off".

'Hoodoo Man Blues' is the archetypal Chicago blues album; the standard to which all other Chicago blues albums are compared.  Recorded back in 1965, for Bob Koester's Delmark label, the record had high ambitions as the creators laid down songs meant to be played in order rather than as a collection of blues singles, this was one of, if not the first Blues LP.  Junior wails on harmonica and means every down-'n-dirty lyric he sings.  Buddy Guy’s guitar playing skillfully expresses the feeling behind the words as he riffs and complements Wells’ phasing.  Jack Myers on bass and Billy Warren on drums lay down a foundation so solid that Wells and Guy just know their playing will always have a base from which to soar.

On the original pressings, Buddy Guy is credited as "Friendly Chap", as Bob Koester thought Buddy was under contract to Chess. Also at one point during the sessions, Buddy's Fender amp died, so Bob Koester plugged him into a Hammond B-3 Leslie speaker for several tracks.  To this day, countless guitarists used and are still using this technique.

'Hoodoo Man Blues' Delmark's best-selling album, is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, was chosen by Living Blues magazine as one of the Top Ten Desert Island Blues Discs.  It is also regularly voted among the best blues album of all time by virtually everyone since its release. 

The freeload is a vinyl rip of my pristine copy of the Analogue Productions remastered release from 1996, and it sounds killer.  This is the release you should have.

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