Retroworld (label)
01 July 2013 (released)
30 July 2013
Truly great music is not confined by the medium you are listening to it on or the place you are in – it is simply great.
Johnny Shines isn’t one of the biggest names but the work he did with Fred McDowell and latterly with Robert Lockwood saw him inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame after his death in 1992.
These two albums could not be more different but the contents of both are great and in many ways utterly chilling.
On the first album Johnny Shines is joined by Big Walter Horton on harmonica, one of the least appreciated but most soulful of the Blues harp players and will up there with Little Walter or Willie D, the great Luther Allison on guitar and Otis Spann on piano and the 12 tracks represent some of the most honest and enjoyable Delta barroom Blues you could wish for. Shines vocals are clean and strong and the two sessions that represent this album – from 1966 and 1969 – saw Shines at his most powerful. The tracks recorded in LA have some fine guitar from Allison while the Chicago tracks feature Shines himself on guitar and the difference shows just how underrated Shines guitar playing was. The thing that links them is the harp of Horton and he plays some magical fills and leads around Shines vocals. Pick of the numbers is ‘G. B. Blues’ for Horton’s playing alongside Spann but Allison’s guitar underpinning Shines vocal makes ‘I Cry, I Cry’ magical.
The second album here is a set of solo numbers by Johnny Shines, recorded in Altadena California in 1970 and a perfect example of Delta Blues. Shines always was a great slide player but his voice on these 16 tracks is high and keening, perfectly suited to the country Blues he was performing at this time. Most of the songs are classics – ‘Standing At The Crossroads’, ‘Death House Blues’, ‘How Long’ all represent the great songs of the Blues and his playing and singing is simply wonderful and wonderfully simple.
This is an essential set for any lover of Blues but it is also a great introduction to the music for someone that has heard some Blues and wants to hear it at its finest.
