We’ve spent a bit of time here already previewing the Antone’s 50th anniversary box set through listens to singles from Gary Clark Jr., Doyle Bramhall II, and Ruthie Foster. And yet, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this remarkable limited release collection of Texas blues history; if you haven’t yet checked it out now that it’s available, you’re going to want to add that right to the top of your priority list.
Forty-one tracks of one stunner after another, Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues (New West Records) includes rare, out-of-print, and newly unarchived live and studio recordings, along with a double LP of new music from the likes of Bobby Rush and Jimmie Vaughan, John Primer, Doyle Bramhall II, Kim Wilson & the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Big Bill Morganfield, Sue Foley, Lurrie Bell, Ruthie Foster, and others, plus an exclusive new Los Lobos 45rpm single.
We won’t detail every track, but we do want you know that there’s a boatload of talent to be heard here, from blues legends such as Albert Collins, James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins, Snooky Pryor, Jimmy Rogers, Sunnyland Slim, Otis Rush, Eddie Taylor, Lazy Lester, and Buddy Guy, to established and rising local acts including Doyle Bramhall and Doyle Bramhall II, Gary Clark Jr., Doug Sahm, Lavelle White, Eve Monsees, Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton, Kam Franklin, and more. And that’s just the primary artists, many of whom are backed by some pretty spectacular bands whose members you’re sure to also recognize the names of.
Along with the Los Lobos 45 single (their take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy”), the collection is broken down into three parts: the double LP The Last Real Texas Blues Album that includes 18 new tracks, the 12-track Tell Me One More Time that features earlier studio recordings from the club’s Antone’s Records label, and a We Went Live in ’75 LP that captures 10 rare live numbers recorded at the club between 1985 and 2004.
The sweet, shuffling “Sugar Coated Love” is a great way to open Tell Me One More Time, nicely representing the Texas sound associated with Antone’s, including some dynamite vocals from Lou Ann Barton and stinging guitar from Jimmie Vaughan. That’s followed by harmonica master Snooky Pryor‘s tough-vocaled “I’m So Glad”, featuring Snooky’s son Rip Lee Pryor on guitar, with other highlights here including a hard nosed, shuffling “Too Sorry” with Doyle Bramhall Sr. on vocals, Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar, and Stevie Ray’s Double Trouble (Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton) on bass and drums; a closing “Going Down Slow” with vocals and piano from Pinetop Perkins, joined by Fran Christina on drums; a raw, solo “No Special Rider” from Lazy Lester; a soulful, stop-you-in-your-tracks “You’re Gonna Make Me Cry” with Lavelle White on vocals, The Golden Echoes on backing vocals, Clarence Hollimon on guitar, and James Polk on B3 organ; and the slow, crooning “Don’t Touch Me” from Kim Wilson backed by Duke Robillard on guitar and a full set of horns, among others.
The album also includes tracks from Doug Sahm; Marcia Ball, Barton, and Angela Strehli; Sue Foley (the song, in fact, that actually caught Clifford Antone’s ear from Foley); and Barbara Lynn, with many of the numbers also including Antone’s house band members such as guitarist Derek O’ Brien, drummer George “Big Beat” Rains, and sax player Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff or well-known band members/guests such as pianist Reese Wynans (Sahm) or Dr. John (piano, B3, percussion, and guitar on the Ball, Barton and Strehli tune). Another thing we really like about this disc of the collection is that it includes some neat, previously unheard archival commentary from Mr. Antone himself about several of the artists and songs.
We Went Live in ’75 picks up right where Tell Me One More Time leaves off, with a little bit more from Pinetop Perkins (vocals and piano) in the form of a 1995 rendition of “Chicken Shack” that features fellow former Muddy Waters band members Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on bass and drums, respectively, Kim Wilson on harmonica, Rusty Zinn on guitar, and Kazanoff on tenor sax. But many of the most standout tracks here were captured a full decade earlier, in July 1985, including Otis Rush (vocals and guitar) with a burning “Double Trouble” and Buddy Guy (vocals and guitar) with a blistering “Look on Yonders Wall”, both backed by the house band; Eddie Taylor (vocals and guitar) backed by Luther Tucker on guitar, Snooky Pryor on harmonica, Bob Stroger on bass, and Sunnyland Slim on piano on Taylor’s Chicago blues classic “Bigtown Playboy”; Jimmy Rogers (vocals and guitar) backed by Jimmie Vaughan on guitar, James Cotton on harmonica, and Stroger on bass for a jaunty “Walking By Myself”; and Albert Collins (vocals and guitar) backed by Jimmie Vaughan on guitar and members of the house band on the slow, stirring “Cold, Cold Feeling”.
Of the other top tracks here, a blazing “Midnight Creeper” from harmonica legend Cotton, backed by Luther Tucker and Matt “Guitar” Murphy on guitars, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones on bass, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums, and Pinetop Perkins on piano, was recorded two years later, in 1987, while the “Catfish Blues” from Gary Clark Jr. that we previewed in an earlier post was recorded in 2004.
Rounding out this album are recordings from Sunnyland Slim (vocals and piano), who is backed by Eddie Taylor and Jimmy Rogers on guitars and Stroger on bass; and Angela Strehli (vocals), backed by Bramhall II and Johnny Moeller on guitars, among others.
(We’ll take a pause here if you want to pull up the collection for streaming while you continue reading, or just go ahead and order yourself an actual physical copy already!)
Deriving its name from a Doug Sahm album (The Last Real Texas Blues Band) on the Antone’s label, The Last Real Texas Blues Album starts off with a terrific pairing of Bobby Rush (vocals and harmonica) and Jimmie Vaughan (guitar) on the Freddie King classic “Going Down”, on which they’re joined by Freddie’s brother Benny Turner on bass as well as Bobby “Blue” Bland’s son Rodd Bland on drums. Turner sticks around to handle vocals (in addition to bass) on the next track, a smooth, swaying “Reconsider Baby” (Lowell Fulson) that finds Derek O’Brien as well as Anson Funderburgh and Lurrie Bell on guitar, Bland again on drums, and Joe Sublett and Kazanoff on sax.
Lil’ Ed Williams (vocals and guitar) pays homage to his uncle J.B. Hutto with a bruising “If You Change Your Mind” that includes Johnny Moeller on guitar, Sumito Ariyoshi on piano, and Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith (son of the aforementioned Willie”Big Eyes” Smith) on drums, while fellow Chicago bluesman and former Muddy Waters band member/leader John Primer (vocals and guitar) takes on Jimmy Reed’s “Honest I Do” with assistance from Johnny Moeller on guitar and Steve Bell (son of Carey Bell) on harmonica, and Steve’s brother Lurrie Bell (vocals and guitar) checks in, joined by Sublett on sax and Jay Moeller on drums, with a patient, gravelly “The Sky is Crying”.
Along with both Doyle Bramhall II‘s captivating cover of Eddie Taylor’s “Bad Boy” and Ruthie Foster‘s gripping “Lead Me On” (Bobby “Blue” Bland) about which we told you previously, and Big Bill Morganfield‘s (son of Muddy Waters) gritty take on R.L. Burnside’s “Just Like a Bird Without a Feather” that may just be better than the original and has Morganfield (vocals and guitar) backed by, among others, Funderburgh and Lurrie Bell on guitars, Jay Moeller on drums, and Kazanoff and Sublett on sax, and a biting “The Things That I Used To Do” from the late Lynn August (vocals) and Marcia Ball (piano), with Derek O’Brien and Eve Monsees on guitars, Mike Buck on drums, and Kazanoff and Sublett again on sax, that covers many of our favorite numbers from this album, although we have to say that there isn’t anything close to a bad track across the entire set, merely a good number of songs that stand out over others!
Tracks from C.J. Chenier, Sue Foley, Kam Franklin, Lavelle White, Jivin’ Gene and Charlie Sexton, McKinley James, Eve Monsees with Lurrie Bell and Billy Gibbons, and Kim Wilson & the Fabulous Thunderbirds finish out this last album, with other guests also including Larry Fulcher (Phantom Blues Band) on bass and Billy Flynn on guitar.
With such a long, rich history, it’s easy, of course, to point out artists who may be missing or underrepresented here–one might wonder where the likes of Muddy Waters and Hubert Sumlin are, or why the collection doesn’t include more of Stevie Ray Vaughan, or whether anybody has a recording of Angela Strehli doing “Texas Flood” (for us to be able to hear the version that inspired Stevie Ray’s) if there isn’t one included here–and we’re sure that Antone’s probably has some other great blues recordings that we may still get to hear in years to come, but 50 Years of the Blues does a fabulous job of documenting Antone’s important history, as well as the club’s promising future (through the inclusion of songs from acts such as McKinley James, Kam Franklin, Eve Monsees, and Gary Clark Jr.) We know it’s a limited edition, but this really is a set that every blues fan should be sure to own!
