Music Reviews
Elmore James

Elmore James

Hits & Rarities

Sunset Blvd Records

In the pantheon of legendary blues men, Elmore James stands out for his fiery slide guitar and emotive vocals. James was a running mate of Robert Johnson and a sideman for Sonny Boy Williamson II in his formative days. During the 1950s, he had a good run recording for Chicago-based Flair Records, Meteor Records, Modern Records, Chess Records, and Chief Records. By 1959 however, James was without a recording contract and was picked up by the New York-based Fire Records.

Hits & Rarities mines the Fire Records catalog. James recorded for Fire from 1959 until his death in 1963. Hits & Rarities is the definitive collection of Elmore James’s later work. Some of the songs, like “Dust My Broom,” he’d recorded earlier in this career. The Fire versions sound fresh and vibrant, not like retreads. There were also new songs recorded during these years, including “One Way Out,” which was later a hit for Sonny Boy Williamson II. To my ears, the Rarities are as cool as the hits.

The Hits disc opens with James’s distinctive barbed wire slide guitar introducing “The Sky is Crying.” The song is a classic blues lament that revived James’s career when it became an R&B hit in 1960. The instrumental “Bobby’ Rock” follows, showing a loose and laidback style with standard guitar picking taking center stage. Elmore scored a hit with his version of Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom,” just one of the songs that infected the youth of England to set off the British Blues revival that spawned Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” also become a rock and roll standard.

The Rarities disc opens with a rocking version of “Standing at the Crossroads.” There are a number of fun songs here, like the suggestive “Shake Your Moneymaker” and “Twelve Year Old Boy.” James’s final hit, “It Hurts Me Too,” is on the Rarities disc. The song charted two years after his passing, in 1965.

This collection is a welcome addition to the Elmore James discography. It provides an excellent entry point for rock fans who know the name (he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), but don’t know the music. For blues scholars, it’s great to have all these later career recordings in one place. Either way, Hits & Rarities is a good listen.

Elmore James


Recently on Ink 19...

Incubus

Incubus

Screen Reviews

Both bold experiment and colossal failure in the 1960s, Esperanto language art house horror film Incubus returns with pre-_Star Trek_ William Shatner to claim a perhaps more serious audience.

Garage Sale Vinyl: Loretta Lynn

Garage Sale Vinyl: Loretta Lynn

Garage Sale Vinyl

In this latest installment of his weekly series, Christopher Long is betrayed by his longtime GF when she swipes his copy of Loretta Lynn’s Greatest Hits Vol. II right out from under his nose while rummaging through a south Florida junk store.