Showing posts with label Big Town Playboys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Town Playboys. Show all posts

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Jeff Beck & The Big Town Playboys - Crazy Legs

Album: Crazy Legs
Size: 95,1 MB
Time: 41:02
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1993
Styles: Rockabilly
Art: Full

1. Race With The Devil (2:00)
2. Cruisin' (2:22)
3. Crazy Legs (2:03)
4. Double Talkin' Baby (2:15)
5. Woman Love (2:35)
6. Lotta Lovin' (2:04)
7. Catman (2:24)
8. Pink Thunderbird (2:31)
9. Baby Blue (2:36)
10. You Better Believe (2:09)
11. Who Slapped John? (1:55)
12. Say Mama (2:13)
13. Red Blue Jeans And A Pony Tail (2:18)
14. Five Feet Of Lovin' (2:11)
15. B-I-Bickey-Bi-Bo-Bo-Go (2:12)
16. Blues Stay Away From Me (2:24)
17. Pretty Pretty Baby (2:26)
18. Hold Me, Hug Me, Rock Me (2:15)

Crazy Legs is Jeff Beck's tribute to the player who inspired him to pick up the guitar, Cliff Gallup of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps. The fact that this collection of rockabilly tunes is also one of the liveliest albums of Beck's long career also underscores the fact that the brilliant guitarist is one of rock's greatest underachievers. Apparently unable to sustain working relationships with players as strong as those in his early groups, Beck has become a top-dollar guitarist for hire who has traded sustained musicality for isolated moments of virtuosity. But slumming with the Big Town Playboys, a respected British revival group, Beck is not just flashy window dressing but the lightning rod in a red-hot combo.

Beck has said that his biggest challenge in mastering rockabilly, a style that calls for the guitarist to mix single-note runs with snappy clusters of chords, was learning to play without the volume and distortion that has informed his playing since his mid-'60s tenure with the Yardbirds. That's what gives Crazy Legs its swing, for instead of dominating the music with sheer sonic muscle, Beck achieves the same end by bouncing his encyclopedic bag of riffs off a rippling rhythm section of drums and stand-up bass. Throughout these 18 well-chosen selections, Beck is equally apt to whip out a propulsive rhythm ("Lotta Lovin'"), a string of arpeggios ("Blues Stay Away From Me") or a wildly scrambled solo ("Cruisin'"). If guitarists earned degrees, Crazy Legs would be Beck's thesis toward a doctorate in rockabilly.

Crazy Legs is unlikely to be more than just another odd patch in Beck's crazy-quilt career. Rockabilly, after all, has been a retro novelty ever since the early Beatles covered tunes by Carl Perkins. The Playboys are certainly less self-conscious than the Stray Cats, who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame in the 1980s, though you can bet your ducktail that the Playboys wouldn't be on a major label without Beck on guitar. In that regard, Crazy Legs is oddly akin to Eric Clapton's Unplugged, for in both cases, celebrated guitar gods respectfully re-create the music that had first stirred their passions. Beck doesn't add anything new to the rockabilly vocabulary, but he plays this music as well as it's ever been played. So while Crazy Legs is ultimately redundant, it also rocks like crazy. /John Milward, Rolling Stone

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

Crazy Legs mc
Crazy Legs gofile

Monday, August 14, 2023

Big Town Playboys - Now Appearing

Album: Now Appearing
Size: 88,0 MB
Time: 37:44
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1990
Styles: R&B
Art: Full

1. Hungry Man (3:19)
2. Who Showed My Baby How To Love (2:10)
3. Baby Please (3:29)
4. Drinking Beer (3:29)
5. You Must Be Foolin' (2:51)
6. In The Middle Of The Night (3:48)
7. I'm So Satisfied (2:55)
8. The Wobble (3:31)
9. The Blues Come Rollin' In (2:59)
10. Doopin' (3:22)
11. That Mellow Saxophone (3:10)
12. What A Shame (2:36)

First formed in 1984, bass player Ian Jennings is the sole surviving founder member of The Big Town Playboys but those that play in the band look on it rather like a private club; people come in, stay for a bit, go and come back again. This obviously makes for an interesting line-up at any gig, whether in the UK or abroad. Their songs of choice are derived from the black America of the 1950s. Rockabilly and swing music were influences, but nobody was experimenting with west coast rhythm and blues; Amos Milburn, Willie Littlefield, Willie Egans – and that's where the Big Town Playboys found their niche.

Stylistically it’s a more saxophone and piano based feel with bigger line-ups and it is more dance oriented than Chicago blues. The contagious dance grooves, the boogie piano, the sax riffs, the overdriven guitar solos and the wailing blues of the vocalists are all part of the reason for this band’s obsession with the music known as Rhythm and Blues. By the end of the 1990s the band had visited the USA three times, including a residency at Mick Fleetwood's club in Los Angeles, a tour of the West coast, a TV show and a trip to New York.

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

Now Appearing mc
Now Appearing gofile

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Big Town Playboys - Hole In My Pocket

Size: 175,4 MB
Time: 76:37
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2015
Styles: Rockabilly Blues, R&B
Art: Full

01. Hurry Baby (2:16)
02. Chicken Shack Boogie (2:31)
03. Happy Pay Day (3:03)
04. Walkin' (2:33)
05. She Walks Right In (2:51)
06. What More Do You Want Me To Do? (2:44)
07. Playboy Boogie (3:16)
08. Come On (2:36)
09. Down The Road A Piece (4:17)
10. I Done Done It (2:30)
11. Shake Your Hips (7:18)
12. Roomin' House Boogie (4:20)
13. Driftin' (2:59)
14. I Like It (2:47)
15. Gotta Do More For My Baby (2:48)
16. Well Oh Well (2:44)
17. Ohh Little Girl (2:25)
18. Your Gonna Win (4:31)
19. Every Day Of The Week (2:12)
20. It Always Rains (4:14)
21. Driftin' (2:47)
22. Undecided Fool (3:24)
23. Hole In My Pocket (2:38)
24. Lamp Post (2:41)

The Big Town Playboys are a British R&B revival band playing American music of the 1950s, though they were formed in the '70s. Personnel has changed over time, but the group leader is pianist/singer Mike Sanchez.

Hole In My Pocket

Friday, January 18, 2019

Various Artists - Jump, Jive & Swing

Year: 1999
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:05
Size: 151,3 MB
Styles: Swing, jump blues, R&B
Scans: Full

1. Chevalier Brothers - Corn On The Cobb (3:05)
2. Chevalier Brothers - Wise Up Baby (2:30)
3. The Ray Gelato Giants - Givin' Up Givin' Up (3:19)
4. Dana Gillespie - A Lotta What You Got (2:55)
5. Sugar Ray's Flying Fortress - Bim Bam Baby (2:22)
6. Big Town Playboys - Ain't No Big Deal On You (3:33)
7. Big Town Playboys - Girls All Over The World (3:28)
8. Tyrone Hibbs & The Hipshakers - Rock ('Til My Rocker Breaks Down) (2:51)
9. The Ray Gelato Giants - Medley: Angelina/Zooma Zooma (5:04)
10. Dana Gillespie - Big Fat Mamas Are Back In Style Again (2:20)
11. Ray Gelato's Giants Of Jive - Sing, Sing, Sing (4:35)
12. Dana Gillespie - Lovin' Machine (2:22)
13. Tyrone Hibbs & The Hipshakers - There Ain't Enough Room Here To Boogie (2:40)
14. Ray Gelato's Giants Of Jive - Flying Home (4:20)
15. Tyrone Hibbs & The Hipshakers - You Better Believe It (2:55)
16. Big Town Playboys - Hungry Man (3:21)
17. Big Town Playboys - The Wobble (3:34)
18. Sugar Ray's Flying Fortress - You Got Me Reelin' And Rockin' (3:37)
19. Sugar Ray's Flying Fortress - Dark Eyes (7:03)

The talents of six great British acts are combined on one CD to show that the Yanks don't have it all their own way when it comes to recreating the Golden Sounds of the swing era.

Dana Gillespie does Wynonie Harris and Julia Lee, Sugar Ray's Flying Fortress covers all bases from Roy Milton to Stan Kenton, while The Ray Gelato Giants recall the stomping sounds of Louis Prima and Benny Goodman (among others).

The Big Town Playboys and Tyrone Hibbs play jump blues like it's still 1947 and the whole package is rounded out with a couple of vintage tracks from the legendary Chevalier Brothers. Over an hour of sartorially spot-on swinging sounds for only around £7. Hey Bop a Rebop!! /Ted Carroll

Jump, Jive & Swing mc
Jump, Jive & Swing zippy

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Big Town Playboys - Playboy Boogie

Year: 1985/1996
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:53
Size: 120,1 MB
Styles: R&B, jump blues
Scans: Full

1. Hurry Baby (2:16)
2. Chicken Shack Boogie (2:31)
3. Happy Pay Day (3:03)
4. Walkin' (2:33)
5. She Walks Right In (2:51)
6. What More Do You Want Me To Do (2:44)
7. Playboy Boogie (3:16)
8. Come On (2:36)
9. Down The Road A Piece (4:17)
10. I Done Done It (2:30)
11. Shake Your Hips (7:18)
12. Roomin' House Boogie (4:20)
13. Driftin' (3:08)
14. I Like It (Bonus Track) (2:48)
15. Gotta Do More For My Baby (Bonus Track) (2:51)
16. Well Oh Well (Bonus Track) (2:43)

Big Town Playboys are more than just a British Rhythm and Blues revival group, they have lived and breathed this sound since being formed by Ricky Cool and Andy Silvester in 1984.

The band are champions of old school American music from the 1940s and 1950s, such as that of Amos Milburn and Little Walter to name but a few, and have backed many of their heroes live, including Lowell Fulson, Don & Dewey, Champion Jack Dupree and Little Willie Littlefield. They have toured with Mick Fleetwood in the USA and have released a series of studio albums over the years, as well as a collaborative work with Jeff Beck re-creating the great Rock’n’Roll sound and songs of Gene Vincent.

They have also performed as backing band for Robert Plant, who contributed guest vocals on their album ‘Roll the Dice’ in 2004. In 1996 Eric Clapton expressed admiration for their work and arranged for the band to open for him during his two-week long stint at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The band still exists to this day but vocalist Mike Sanchez left the band at the end of 1999 to pursue a solo career.

Playboy Boogie mc
Playboy Boogie zippy

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Big Town Playboys - Western World

Size: 104,2 MB
Time: 43:32
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2001
Styles: Jump Blues, R&B
Art: Full

01. Calling Baby (2:16)
02. Don't Know Where She Went (3:08)
03. You Know Yeah (2:30)
04. Hey, Hey Now Baby (3:07)
05. Do What You Want To Do (2:07)
06. I've Got A Brand New Home (2:58)
07. Love You Baby (2:24)
08. Cry Hard Luck (2:31)
09. Hurry Up, Train (2:34)
10. Where You At (2:10)
11. Nit Wit (2:05)
12. Life Is Suicide (3:04)
13. Can't Stop Lovin' (3:13)
14. Come Home (2:59)
15. Tailor Made (3:41)
16. Is It True (2:37)

Personnel:
Baritone Saxophone – Nick Lunt
Bass – Ian Jennings
Drums – Mark Morgan
Guitar – Dave Wilson
Piano, Harp – West Weston
Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – Lee Badau
Vocals, Slide Guitar – Big Joe Louis

Big Joe Louis replaced Mike Sanchez before the recording of this 2001 release, divided between Louis originals and covers of not-very-well-known songs by fairly renowned bluesmen. Louis has a deep, gruff voice, not great, but not as devoid of personality as those of many blues groups playing in a 1950s R&B-blues style. That's what the Big Town Playboys do, competently and reverently, on this disc. From their arrangements (which include saxophones) and taste in material, it's obvious that these are the guys buying those esoteric reissues of '50s blues and R&B from the Modern and Specialty catalogs. This doesn't reinvent that wheel, but emulates and revives it. ~by Richie Unterberger

Western World

Monday, November 9, 2015

Big Town Playboys - Off The Clock Live (2 CD)

First formed in 1984, bass player Ian Jennings is the sole surviving founder member of The Big Town Playboys but those that play in the band look on it rather like a private club; people come in, stay for a bit, go and come back again. This obviously makes for an interesting line-up at any gig, whether in the UK or abroad.

Their songs of choice are derived from the black America of the 1950s. Rockabilly and swing music were influences, but nobody was experimenting with west coast rhythm and blues; Amos Milburn, Willie Littlefield, Willie Egans – and that's where the Big Town Playboys found their niche. Stylistically it’s a more saxophone and piano based feel with bigger line-ups and it is more dance oriented than Chicago blues. The contagious dance grooves, the boogie piano, the sax riffs, the overdriven guitar solos and the wailing blues of the vocalists are all part of the reason for this band’s obsession with the music known as Rhythm and Blues.

By the end of the 1990s the band had visited the USA three times, including a residency at Mick Fleetwood's club in Los Angeles, a tour of the West coast, a TV show and a trip to New York.

Personnel: Mike Sanchez - vocals, piano, guitar; Andy Fairweather Low - vocals, guitar; Frank Mead - tenor sax, harmonica; Nick Lunt - baritone sax; Ian Jennings - double bass; Mark Morgan - drums.

Album: Off The Clock Live - CD 1
Year: 1997
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:49
Size: 112,2 MB
Styles: R&B, blues
Scans: Full

1. Deep In The Heart Of Texas (2:58)
2. Lights Out (2:06)
3. Roomin' House Boogie (5:12)
4. Don't Lie To Me (4:58)
5. It'll Be Me (2:58)
6. Found What I'm Looking For (3:34)
7. King Bee (3:55)
8. Bop Sit-In Blues (2:18)
9. Rock Me Again (5:02)
10. Something You Got (4:26)
11. Glamour Girl (4:50)
12. In The Middle Of The Night (6:25)

Off The Clock Live - CD 1 mc
Off The Clock Live - CD 1 zippy

Album: Off The Clock Live - CD 2
Year: 1997
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:33
Size: 123,0 MB
Styles: R&B, blues
Scans: Full

1. Hey Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (4:41)
2. Companion Blues (5:14)
3. Poor Boy (6:16)
4. My Girl Josephine (5:50)
5. Gin House (6:40)
6. You Better Believe It (3:32)
7. Red Hot Mama (4:58)
8. She's Tough (3:41)
9. Girls All Over The World (3:47)
10. I'm Mad (3:42)
11. Jam Up (5:07)

Off The Clock Live - CD 2 mc
Off The Clock Live - CD 2 zippy

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Champion Jack Dupree - Live-With The Big Town Playboys

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 73:44
Size: 168.8 MB
Styles: Piano blues, New Orleans blues
Year: 1998/2005
Art: Front

[7:51] 1. In The Evening
[5:40] 2. I Used To Love You
[4:43] 3. Sweet Little Woman
[7:37] 4. Freedom Blues
[5:01] 5. Wine, Wine, Wine
[3:58] 6. Lawdy, Lawdy
[7:26] 7. Junker Blues
[5:20] 8. One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
[6:33] 9. Rock The Boogie Woogie
[7:33] 10. Bring Me Flowers While I'm Living
[7:37] 11. I Keep On Drifting
[4:19] 12. She's Gone

Bass – Ian Jennings; Drums – Clive Deamer; Guitar – Andy Silvester; Piano, Vocals – Champion Jack Dupree; Tenor Saxophone – Alan Nicholls. Recorded live in England in 1989.

Live-With The Big Town Playboys mc
Live-With The Big Town Playboys zippy

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Big Town Playboys - 2 albums: Roll The Dice / Hip Joint

First formed in 1984, bass player Ian Jennings is the sole surviving founder member of The Big Town Playboys: but those that play in the band look on it rather like a private club; people come in, stay for a bit, go and come back again. This obviously makes for an interesting line-up at any gig, whether in the UK or abroad.

Their songs of choice are derived from the black America of the 1950s. Rockabilly and swing music were influences, but nobody was experimenting with west coast rhythm and blues; Amos Milburn, Willie Littlefield, Willie Egans – and that's where the Big Town Playboys found their niche. Stylistically it’s a more saxophone and piano based feel with bigger line-ups and it is more dance oriented than Chicago blues. The contagious dance grooves, the boogie piano, the sax riffs, the overdriven guitar solos and the wailing blues of the vocalists are all part of the reason for this band’s obsession with the music known as Rhythm and Blues.

Album: Roll The Dice
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 42:43
Size: 97.8 MB
Styles: R&B, Jump blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:34] 1. Sweet Lovin Mama
[3:03] 2. Yield Not
[2:18] 3. Hit Git & Split
[4:42] 4. Down In The Hole
[3:23] 5. Merry Way
[3:52] 6. Look Out Mabel
[3:15] 7. Daddy Rollin' Stone
[1:56] 8. Hot Dog
[2:43] 9. Sweet Baby Of Mine
[3:24] 10. Not For Me
[2:52] 11. Up The Line
[1:34] 12. Come To Love
[2:52] 13. One Monkey
[3:08] 14. Big Town

Roll The Dice

Album: Hip Joint
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 41:04
Size: 94.0 MB
Styles: R&B, Jump blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[3:29] 1. Ain't No Big Deal On You
[3:04] 2. When It Rains It Pours
[4:10] 3. Shake Your Hips
[4:17] 4. Glamour Girl
[2:51] 5. I Don't Care Who Knows
[3:26] 6. Kiddio
[4:05] 7. Forever True
[4:16] 8. Rock Me Again
[3:25] 9. Girls All Over The World
[4:03] 10. My Heart Is Mended
[3:53] 11. No Place To Go

Hip Joint