Big John Wrencher - Big John's Boogie Plus

Size: 111,4 MB
Time: 47:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1974/2003
Styles: Chicago Blues
Art: Full

01. Honeydripper (2:19)
02. Third Dgree (4:35)
03. Now Darling (3:36)
04. Where Did You Stay Last Night? (3:52)
05. Trouble Makin' Woman (4:12)
06. Lonesome In My Cabin (4:07)
07. How Many More Years? (4:21)
08. Come On Over (3:15)
09. Telephone Blues (6:37)
10. Runnin' Wild (3:55)
11. Big John's Boogie (2:42)
12. I'm A Root Man (4:04)

This set by the obscure yet legendary one-armed harmonica player and singer Big John Wrencher is one of the great overlooked blues classics of the 1970s. Recorded in England in 1975 (with two bonus tracks from 1974) with Eddie "Playboy" Taylor's band, the Blueshounds, it is the only recording in Wrencher's small catalog that begins to capture the intensity, soulfulness, and elegance of his live performances. Wrencher was a composer as well as an interpreter and arranger of great blues and R&B classics. The set begins with an amazing read of "Honeydripper" by Joe Liggins. Began as a simple blues shuffle, Wrencher's harmonica solo before the tune's main groove kicks in turns it into something else entirely -- a spine-loosening groover of the highest order. When he begins to sing in his clear, smooth baritone, the seams begin to split and the track bleeds blue all over the stereo. His arrangement of the traditional blues tune "Third Degree" is a nearly Famous Flames-styled funk tune with its choogling riff and pumped-up bass in the front of the mix. Wrencher's voice makes it really growl and shake, however. He doesn't ask questions when he sings; he shouts what he knows. Wrencher's own "Lonesome in My Cabin" is a spooky, minor-key blues that has the author's moaning, groaning vocal at its heart, and a repetitive piano riff shadowed by the electric guitar filling space along with Wrencher's harmonica. The four-to-the-floor boogie of "Come On Over," another Wrencher original, rolls, twists, and turns on his harmonica's woven lines, his huge, ringing voice moving into a guttural groove colored by Taylor's lead guitar. This is a Joe Turner-styled shouter, but Wrencher's voice makes it so immediate, so full of cracks and splinters, it's virtually alive. The bonus material recorded a year earlier is far from filler. While not recorded quite as wonderfully as the album, it has even more immediacy, feeling more like a live date -- hopefully there's more where this came from -- and it's all muddy, greasy, and funky. The album's final track, "I'm a Root Man," one of Wrencher's own, is a slow to mid-tempo blues with a call-and-response line that acts as nothing but a vehicle for the author's storytelling way of singing. It is sensual, raw, and full of the kind of otherworldly life listeners seldom hear in blues records anymore. This set is a treasure. Period. ~ by Thom Jurek

Big John's Boogie Plus MP3
Big John's Boogie Plus FLAC

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Various - American Blues Legends '74

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:25
Size: 136.0 MB
Styles: Chicago blues, Louisiana blues, Electric blues
Year: 1974/2001
Art: Front

[2:39] 1. Big John Wrencher - Big John's Boogie
[4:01] 2. Big John Wrencher - I'm A Root Man
[4:17] 3. Big John Wrencher - How Many More Years
[4:29] 4. Cousin Joe From New Orleans - I Can't Lose With The Stuff I Use
[2:18] 5. Cousin Joe From New Orleans - Problems
[3:30] 6. Doctor Ross - It Seems Like A Dream
[5:45] 7. Doctor Ross - On My Way To School
[3:06] 8. Doctor Ross - Boogie Disease #2
[5:03] 9. Eddie Taylor - I Used To Have Some Friends
[5:21] 10. Eddie Taylor - I Know My Baby
[3:16] 11. Eddie Taylor - You Don't Love Me
[2:22] 12. G.P. Jackson - 12th Street Boogie
[2:58] 13. G.P. Jackson - A Letter Dressed In Red
[2:24] 14. G.P. Jackson - Leavin' Kansas City
[4:07] 15. Cousin Joe From New Orleans - Railroad Avenue
[3:38] 16. Cousin Joe From New Orleans - Blues Legends '74

You can hear Bob Brunning's funky bass line real good on this platter on Big John Wrencher's "Big John's boogie" and the slower Wrencher tune "I'm a root man". These are preferable to the three G.P. Jackson recordings that Bob is on because "12th street boogie" & "A letter dressed in red" are virtually the same tempo (and right next to each other to boot) "Leavin' Kansas City" is a little faster but it doesn't help differentiate the three much. Eddie Taylor's great guitar work is distinctive and featured well on the John Wrencher tapes as well as his own two songs which are "I used to have some friends" & "I know my baby" to good effect. Cousin Joe has got three songs ("I can't lose with the stuff I use", "Problems" & "Blues legends") and Doctor Ross has two ("It seems like a dream" & "On my way to school"). These aren't really high points for me but there's a good mix here so people will probably like one or the other style that's on show. ~ John Fitzgerald

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Various - And This Is Free: The Life And Times Of Chicago's Legendary Maxwell Street

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 50:16
Size: 115.1 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[2:26] 1. J.B. Hutto - Pet Cream Man
[3:11] 2. Floyd Jones - Dark Road
[2:44] 3. Baby Face Leroy Trio - Rollin' & Tumblin' Part 1
[2:50] 4. Snooky Pryor - Cryin' Shame
[3:01] 5. Robert Nighthawk - Prowling Nighthawk
[3:42] 6. Arvella Gray - John Henry
[2:32] 7. Johnny Young - Money Taking Woman
[4:13] 8. Big John Wrencher - Maxwell Street Alley Blues
[2:49] 9. Daddy Stovepipe - The Spasm
[2:35] 10. Johnny Williams - Worried Man Blues
[2:51] 11. John Lee Granderson - Hard Luck John
[2:43] 12. John Henry Barbee - Against My Will
[3:06] 13. Boll Weevil - Christmas Time Blues
[2:56] 14. Baby Face Leroy Trio - Rollin' & Tumblin' Part 2
[2:50] 15. Papa Charlie Jackson - Maxwell Street Blues
[2:33] 16. Jimmy Rogers - Little Store Blues
[3:06] 17. Blind Percy - Fourteenth St. Blues

Probably every major American city has a seedy, shady yet colorful neighborhood that isn't missed until it's gone. For Boston, that neighborhood was the lively, raunchy Scollay Square; only after the area was razed in the name of urban renewal in the 1970s were its honky-tonk dives and burlesque joints celebrated. In New York City in the 1970s, politicians vowed to clean up Times Square, but now, the influx of chain stores and upscale mini-malls around 42nd Street has people reminiscing about the good, bad old days.

Chicago's legendary Maxwell Street on the city's Near West Side was one of those places that people love to remember – an open-air marketplace for bargain hunters and hustlers, for street musicians and sidewalk preachers, for someone shopping for shoes, for another seeking to save souls. In the early 1900s, the area near Halsted Street became the place for immigrants to begin their search for the American dream by running large open-air stores and flea markets as well as restaurants, delicatessens and other businesses. Then it was dubbed Jew Town -- in those politically incorrect days, a label considered no more insulting than Chinatown is today. Later, African-Americans moving north found Maxwell Street a haven for commercial activities, entertainment and music, as blues and gospel singers filled the street with song and salvation. By the early 1960s, the seven-block area was a bustling carnival of all kinds of commerce, legal, illicit and somewhere in between. By the 1990s, the market was moved to accommodate expansion of the University of Illinois and an era seemed to be over, much mourned by long-time Chicagoans.

That era is revived in And This is Free, a new "MultiPac" published by Shanachie Entertainment, which features a DVD, CD and booklet chronicling Maxwell's colorful history. The DVD contains several documentaries, starting with Mike Shea's 1964 film, "And This is Free," an exquisitely shot, black-and-white tribute to the market's unique flavor. Kicking the DVD off with Shea's 50-minute feature is a bit of a gamble. This documentary contains no narrative; Shea just takes you to the street and lets the story unfold, something with the potential to bewilder the non-Chicagoan watcher. ~Stephanie Schorow

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Big John Wrencher - Big John's Boogie

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 40:30
Size: 92.7 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 1975/2005
Art: Front

[2:13] 1. Honeydripper 2
[4:35] 2. Third Degree
[3:34] 3. Now Darling
[3:49] 4. Where Did You Stay Last Night
[4:11] 5. Trouble Makin' Woman
[4:08] 6. Lonesome In My Cabin
[4:18] 7. How Many More Years
[3:13] 8. Come On Over
[6:34] 9. Telephone Blues
[3:51] 10. Runnin' Wild

This set by the obscure yet legendary one-armed harmonica player and singer Big John Wrencher is one of the great overlooked blues classics of the 1970s. Recorded in England in 1975 (with two bonus tracks from 1974) with Eddie "Playboy" Taylor's band, the Blueshounds, it is the only recording in Wrencher's small catalog that begins to capture the intensity, soulfulness, and elegance of his live performances. Wrencher was a composer as well as an interpreter and arranger of great blues and R&B classics. The set begins with an amazing read of "Honeydripper" by Joe Liggins. Began as a simple blues shuffle, Wrencher's harmonica solo before the tune's main groove kicks in turns it into something else entirely -- a spine-loosening groover of the highest order. When he begins to sing in his clear, smooth baritone, the seams begin to split and the track bleeds blue all over the stereo. His arrangement of the traditional blues tune "Third Degree" is a nearly Famous Flames-styled funk tune with its choogling riff and pumped-up bass in the front of the mix. Wrencher's voice makes it really growl and shake, however. He doesn't ask questions when he sings; he shouts what he knows. Wrencher's own "Lonesome in My Cabin" is a spooky, minor-key blues that has the author's moaning, groaning vocal at its heart, and a repetitive piano riff shadowed by the electric guitar filling space along with Wrencher's harmonica. The four-to-the-floor boogie of "Come On Over," another Wrencher original, rolls, twists, and turns on his harmonica's woven lines, his huge, ringing voice moving into a guttural groove colored by Taylor's lead guitar. This is a Joe Turner-styled shouter, but Wrencher's voice makes it so immediate, so full of cracks and splinters, it's virtually alive. The album's final track, "I'm a Root Man," one of Wrencher's own, is a slow to mid-tempo blues with a call-and-response line that acts as nothing but a vehicle for the author's storytelling way of singing. It is sensual, raw, and full of the kind of otherworldly life listeners seldom hear in blues records anymore. This set is a treasure. Period. ~Thom Jurek

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Various - Maxwell Street & Friends Vols 1&2

NOTE: The following review is for the album "And This Is Maxwell Street' (1998) from which this 2-disc issue is based.

This two disc set features the street recordings from the 1964 Mike Shea film documentary, And This Is Free, plus a bevy of previously unreleased performances of equal landmark merit. Hard-core blues fans and slide guitar aficionados will be familiar with some of this material because a handful of these performances were issued in 1980 on Rounder as Robert Nighthawk Live On Maxwell Street -- 1964. At the time of their release these recordings were incorrectly credited. It turns out that the performances themselves were also edited. For the record, it's the otherwise unknown guitarist Little Arthur King -- not Night Hawk -- playing the bebop instrumental medley; he also pops up on this set backing both Carey Bell and Big John Wrencher. Johnny Young, listed on the Rounder package as the second guitarist does appear on these recordings, but only in a frontman role on two tracks. Carey Bell once again appears on the tracks from the original release plus some others, but he shares the harmonica duties with Big John Wrencher, the one-armed blues wizard who was a mainstay of the Maxwell Street area and evidently a regular of Night Hawk's informal Sunday group. The drummer is Jimmy Collins, who seems hell-bent on finishing every number -- even the slow blues -- at a much faster tempo than where it was originally started. The other previously unidentified guitarist on these recordings turns out to be none other than Shea's close friend Mike Bloomfield. Deemed "unauthentic" by Shea, none of Bloomfield's work was filmed and all of his off-mike lead work with Night Hawk was consequently edited out of the Rounder album. Here, Bloomfield takes the lead on the two Johnny Young numbers and also shows up on Night Hawk's version of "Dust My Broom" and on the now longer medley of "Annie Lee"/"Sweet Black Angel," swapping licks with the old master. In the middle of all these blues performances are equally stellar ones from the gospel side of things, courtesy of James, Fannie Brewer and Carrie Robinson. Ultimately, Night Hawk's performances form the centerpiece of these landmark recordings. If the original Rounder package was an eye-opener as to what Night Hawk was truly capable of in a live setting, this new package is twice as illuminating, making him present on 22 of the 30 selections on here. Start your Robert Night Hawk collection with this two-disc collection and you'll never have to look back; these recordings will end up becoming his crowning legacy. It seriously belongs in every blues fan's collection. ~Cub Koda

Album: Maxwell Street & Friends Vol 1
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 60:50
Size: 139.3 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[4:09] 1. Johnny Young - The Sun Is Shining
[5:25] 2. Big John Wrencher - Can't Hold Out Much Longer
[1:42] 3. Carey Bell - That's All Right
[1:17] 4. Robert Nighthawk - That's All Right
[2:11] 5. Robert Nighthawk - Red Top/Ornithology
[2:37] 6. Carey Bell - Maxwell Street Jam
[5:19] 7. Big John Wrencher - Lucille
[2:06] 8. Arvella Gray - Corinna , Corinna
[2:31] 9. Arvella Gray - Power To Live Right
[4:54] 10. Robert Nighthawk - Cheating And Lying Blues
[3:54] 11. Robert Nighthawk - Honky Tonk
[4:50] 12. Robert Nighthawk - Dust My Broom
[3:19] 13. Robert Nighthawk - Peter Gunn Jam
[7:12] 14. Robert Nighthawk - I Need Love So Bad
[5:22] 15. Johnny Young - All I Want For My Breakfast
[3:55] 16. Robert Nighthawk - Take It Easy, Baby

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Album: Maxwell Street & Friends Vol 2
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 61:40
Size: 141.2 MB
Styles: Chicago blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[6:17] 1. Robert Mojo Elem - Mama, Talk To Your Daughter
[2:45] 2. Carey Bell - I'm Ready
[2:06] 3. Carey Bell - Carey'n On
[5:53] 4. James Brewer - When The Saints Go Marching In
[5:11] 5. Robert Nighthawk - Back Off Jam
[7:02] 6. Arvella Gray - John Henry
[8:33] 7. Robert Nighthawk - Sweet Black Angel
[4:32] 8. Big John Wrencher - Love You Tonight
[5:27] 9. Robert Nighthawk - The Time Have Come
[2:12] 10. Carey Bell - Cruisin' In A Cadillac
[3:48] 11. Robert Nighthawk - Honey Hush
[5:57] 12. Robert Nighthawk - I'll Fly Away
[1:51] 13. Fannie Brewer - I Shall Overcome

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