Showing posts with label Little Hatch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Little Hatch. Show all posts

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Little Hatch & The Houserockers - Well, All Right!

Size: 116,6 MB
Time: 50:38
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1993
Styles: Modern Electric Blues
Art: Full

01. Houserockers' Lumpty-Lump (Without Little Hatch) (4:33)
02. Well, I'm Walkin' (4:50)
03. If I Can't Come In (8:09)
04. Crosscut Saw (4:37)
05. Rock With Me, Baby (4:55)
06. We're Gonna Have A Ball (Down At The Union Hall) (5:10)
07. She's All Right With Me (4:45)
08. Please Don't Treat Me Wrong (4:32)
09. Can't You See What You're Doing To Me? (4:35)
10. Do You Wanna Jump? (4:27)

Born Provine Hatch, Jr. in Sledge, Mississippi, he learned to play harmonica from his father. Hearing blues and gospel music, Hatch knew he wanted to make music for a living. At age 14, his family moved to Helena, Arkansas and the blues scene caught his attention.

Hatch joined the Navy in 1943; after his tour of duty, he relocated to Kansas City, Missouri in 1946. After working for a cartage company for two years, he founded his own cartage business and married.

In the early 1950s, Hatch began jamming in blues clubs of Kansas City. He closed his business in 1954 and took a job with Hallmark Cards. In 1955, he formed and fronted his own band, playing on the weekends and a few nights a week. This act would continue for more than 20 years. By the late 1950s, Hatch's harmonica style became influenced by Chicago blues players such as Little Walter, Snooky Pryor and Junior Wells.

In 1971 German exchange university students recorded a Little Hatch performance. This became an album, entitled The Little Hatchet Band, but distribution was limited to Germany and Belgium. He retired from Hallmark in 1986 and his band, 'Little Hatch and the House Rockers', were hired as the house band of the Grand Emporium Saloon in Kansas City. A cassette of his blues performances at the Grand Emporium was released in 1988.

In 1993, the Modern Blues label released Well, All Right! and became his first nationally-distributed album. In 1997, Chad Kassem opened Blue Heaven Studios and founded the APO label. Kassem had befriended Little Hatch in the mid 1980s and asked him to be his first signed recording artist. In 2000, the album Goin' Back was released and was followed by Rock with Me Baby in 2003.

From 1999 to 2001, Hatch occasionally toured other parts of the United States, and twice toured Europe. He settled back down as a Kansas City performer, frequently playing at BB's Lawnside Bar-B-Q and other venues. In 2002, Hatch was diagnosed with cancer.

Well, All Right!

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Little Hatch - Rock With Me Baby

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 52:09
Size: 119.4 MB
Styles: Electric Harmonica Blues
Year: 2003
Art: Front

[3:55] 1. Rock With Me Baby
[3:39] 2. I Believe I'll Go Back Home
[2:06] 3. Driving Wheel
[3:12] 4. Union Hall
[4:01] 5. Next Time You See Me
[4:55] 6. Hold That Train, Conductor
[5:22] 7. Baby Please Don't Go
[3:28] 8. Sweet Little Angel
[4:19] 9. Help Me
[4:13] 10. Mellow Down Easy
[3:49] 11. Everything's Gonna Be Alright
[4:22] 12. That's Alright
[4:44] 13. Country Blues

Rock With Me Baby is the comforting addition to this awesome, down-home blues artist's sparsely-documented career. A fire that cannot be faked or accurately imitated fuels each note and puts this title in perfect fit with APO Records' mission of finding "the real blues." Recently deceased at 81 years old, Little Hatch is a little-known legend; little-known, that is, outside of Kansas City, where his birthday was long ago declared "Little Hatch Day" and where harp up-and-comers actively pay homage to the master.

Little Hatch, born Provine Hatch, Jr. in 1922 in Sledge, Mississippi, began blowing the harp obsessively at 8 years old and came under the direct spell of Sonny Boy Williamson II and Howlin' Wolf when his family moved to Helena, Arkansas in 1935. Sonny Boy became Hatch's hero, and from there, another sure-fire bluesman was born. Rock With Me Baby oozes with blues purity and recalls the gritty roots of a time before blues needed polish to shine. If Hatch's harp is technically imperfect, his soulful voice is unmatched. Fans of the real thing will drool, and rockers may at least understand blues heritage through this release.

Jimmy D. Lane and Ron Edwards accompany Hatch on guitars. The trio lays down 13 tracks of exquisite traditional blues that's a treat to both ears and soul. Lane is of course son of blues legend Jimmy Rogers, and he's a fast-rising star in his own right with two great releases on the APO label and a third soon to come. Edwards has been playing sweet-sounding slide guitar for more than 30 years, having been tutored by such slide luminaries as Houston Stackhouse and J.B. Hutto. His regular gig for 15 years now has been as accompanist to St. Louis bluesman and APO recording artist Henry Townsend. Rock With Me Baby, Hatch's second APO release, is surely his best album to date.

Rock With Me Baby mc
Rock With Me Baby zippy

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Little Hatch - Goin' Back

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 57:36
Size: 131.9 MB
Styles: Harmonica blues
Year: 1998/2009
Art: Front

[5:43] 1. Rock Me Baby
[5:10] 2. Woke Up This Morning
[5:04] 3. She's Nineteen Years Old
[5:34] 4. Fannie Mae
[4:17] 5. The Sky Is Crying
[4:45] 6. Baby, Scratch My Back
[6:03] 7. You Don't Have To Go
[4:56] 8. Buzz On
[3:24] 9. Long As My Right Arm
[6:00] 10. Your Friends
[4:01] 11. I Got A Woman
[2:35] 12. Glory Glory

With APO's release of yet another superior collection of contemporary blues recordings, it's clear that special things are happening at a converted cathedral in Salina, Kansas, called Blue Heaven Studios. One day, while APO artist Jimmie Lee Robinson was laying down his impressive legacy for the ace CD "Remember Me," a scarcely recorded Kansas City harmonica legend named Provine Hatch, known as "Little Hatch," walked in with his wife for a look. After Hatch was asked to cut loose in spectacular fashion with tape rolling, guitar wizard Bill Nye was enlisted to fan the flames. Little Hatch proceeded to record the songs for "Goin' Back," mostly in single takes. Check out "She's Nineteen Years Old" to hear a fine renewal of the Muddy Waters classic; "The Sky Is Crying" for his creative revisitation of Elmore James; and his superlative version of Jimmy Reed's "You Don't Have to Go." ~Alan Greenberg

mc
zippy