V.A.—SUNRISE ON THE BLUES: Sun Records Curated By Record Store Day, Volume 7 (ORG), LP

1. Howlin’ Wolf Everybody in the Mood

2. Little Junior’s Blue Flames Mystery Train

3. Rosco Gordon Let’s Get High

4. Johnny Adams I Won’t Cry

5. Earl Hooker Going on Down the Line

6. Lost John Hunter ; His Blind Bats Cool Down Mama

7. Big Walter Horton Grandma Told Grandpa

8. Sleepy John Estes Policy Man Blues

9. Little Milton If Crying Would Help Me

10. James Cotton Cotton Crop Blues

11. Doctor Ross Cat Squirrel

12. The Prisonaires That Chick’s Too Young to Fry

13. Pat Hare I’m Gonna Murder My Baby

14. Joe Hill Louis We All Got to Go Some Time

V.A.—SUNRISE ON THE BLUES: Sun Records Curated By Record Store Day, Volume 7 (ORG), LP

     ORG Music has been doing annual RSD compilations from the large and diverse archives of Sun Records, with material chosen by record store employees, and this 7^th volume focuses on blues material from 1951-1956. Many ORG releases have been devoted to under-appreciated vintage jazz and blues, and any label that does quality vinyl releases on artists such as Bunk Johnson and Frank Frost and Earl Hines deserves our praise.

     This 14-track collection is beautifully pressed on deep and heavy vinyl, capturing all the nuances of Sam Phillips’ sharp-edged but intentionally murky production style. The biting guitar of Pat Hare and Earl Hooker and Little Milton, the flame-thrower vocals of Howlin’ Wolf, the loping proto-bluebeat sound of Rosco Gordon, the down-home one-man-bands such as Joe Hill Louis and Doctor Ross, the gin-soaked barrelhouse piano of Lost John Hunter—there was a wide variety of first-rate talent on offer at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis in the early 50’s, and Sam Phillips was a master of capturing this lightning in a bottle.

     Fortunately, the LP is programmed well so that the diversity of the music is highlighted from track to track. Unfortunately, while there are brief informative notes on the back cover, the inner sleeve contains no discographical information or personnel or pictures of the artists, but does contain two sides of self-aggrandizing hype from a certain vodka manufacturer. As most of the music included here has been reissued multiple times, the Sun specialist is not really the audience for this album, so a little bit more information and a little bit less vodka hype might be appreciated by the customer who shells out RSD prices for this album and who wants to learn a bit more.

BILL SHUTE, originally published in Ugly Things magazine in 2020

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and….Be sure to pick up a copy of my newest poetry book…

STATIC STRUT by Bill Shute

KSE #421, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover, $6.95 cover price

published 2 January 2024

available for immediate order in the USA from https://amzn.to/48GeYC5