It’s been more than a decade-and-a-half since the passing of blues great Koko Taylor, but her old friends at Alligator Records, the label with which she spent three-and-a-half decades after getting her start on Chess Records, aren’t about to let her be forgotten, having just released a 12-track compilation of remastered versions of what the label calls Taylor’s “most-requested fan favorites”.
Titled Crown Jewels in reference to Taylor’s “Queen of the Blues” moniker, the collection includes all of the tough blues tracks that jump to mind when you hear Taylor’s name, appropriately kicking off on her signature “Wang Dang Doodle”, one of a handful of songs here that features a backing band of Pinetop Perkins on piano, Sammy Lawhorn and Johnny B. Moore on guitar, Abb Locke on tenor sax, Cornelius Boyson on bass, and Vince Chappelle on drums. And a wang dang doodle this collection indeed is, with the same band backing Taylor on the shuffling “You Can Have My Husband”, a romping “Hey Bartender”, the bouncy closing “Let the Good Times Roll”, and an especially growling-vocaled “I’m a Woman” that also features Harmonica Hinds on the instrument for which he was nicknamed.
Hinds is just one of several guests you’ll hear, with the set also including a duet with Buddy Guy (who also, of course, provides some stinging guitar) on “Born Under a Bad Sign”, Carey Bell on harmonica for a storming “Mother Nature”, and Mighty Joe Young on lead guitar for the also-powerful “Voodoo Woman”.
Among the other gems you’ll find here are two songs often more associated with Taylor’s contemporary Etta James than Taylor herself, although Taylor certainly does a very nice job with both, with a live take of “I’d Rather Go Blind” from a performance at FitzGerald’s Roadhouse in Berwyn, Ill., and a gritty, grooving version of the Ann Peebles classic “Come to Mama” (a song Taylor actually recorded a few years prior to James).
A smoking, horns-laced “Can’t Let Go” and slow, biting “Ernestine” that features Johnnie Johnson on piano and Matthew Skoller on harmonica round out the set, which is simply a must-have for blues fans of any level.