Blues Kings Of Baton Rouge / Various Blues Kings Of Baton Rouge / Various CD

Blues expert Martin Hawkins tells the story of local blues singers and players that got onto records. The story goes beyond the Excello sound and the music of Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo, and also features folk music by Willie B. Thomas, Robert Pete Williams and others. A detailed introduction to the topic and artist biographies for each individual performer can be found in the extensive 52-page illustrated booklet. The recordings have been carefully remastered for this edition. Limited edition of 1,000 copies worldwide! These two CDs contain a more or less chronological taster of the blues from Baton Rouge, one of the several cities alongside the mighty Mississippi that has been thought of or thinks of itself as a blues town. Like New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis and some smaller places, Baton Rouge's local blues players made a big contribution to the recorded legacy of the blues. We really don't know what the blue sound of Baton Rouge was before about 1954, when it's first bluesman was recorded, and by the 1970s the blues as current, recorded, black music was dying out, melding with R&B and the sounds of soul. Those newer sounds were still a part of black culture and, increasingly, of white culture locally and internationally, but a different muse, a different music, a different story. We concentrate on the period between 1954 and 1971, featuring here, together for the first time, those Baton Rouge singers and players who got onto records, one way or another. Some were aspiring professionals aiming for the stars, or at least for a local juke box spin, while others were local 'folk' performers plucked from their everyday life to sing for the man with the remote tape machine and a microphone.

1. Slim Harpo - Blues Hang-Over 2. Butch Cage and Willie B. Thomas - Who Broke The Lock 3. LightninÆ Slim - Bad Luck 4. LightninÆ Slim - Bugger Bugger Boy 5. Schoolboy Cleve - Strange Letter Blues 6. Clarence Edwards - Smokestack Lightning 7. Robert Pete Williams - Angola Special 8. Butch Cage and Willie B.Thomas - Jelly Roll 9. Slim Harpo - I'm A King Bee 10. Lonesome Sundown - My Home Is A Prison 11. Lightning Slim - Mean 'Ol Lonesome Train 12. Clarence Edwards - Stack O' Dollars 13. Robert Pete Williams - Come Here Baby 14. Sally Dotson and Smokey Babe - Your Dice Won't Pass 15. Lazy Lester - They Call Me Lazy 16. Jimmy Dotson - Looking For My Baby 17. Raful Neal - Crying Hard 18. Lazy Lester - I'm A Lover Not A Fighter 19. LightninÆ Slim - Lightnin's Troubles 20. Slim Harpo - One More Day 21. Lightning Slim - Rooster Blues 22. LightninÆ Slim and Lazy Lester - Trip To Chicago (alt) 23. Slim Harpo - What A Dream 24. Smokey Babe and Clyde Causey - Black Gal 25. Smokey Babe and Lazy Lester - Mississippi River So Deep And Wide 26. Herman E. Johnson - Depression Blues 27. Slim Harpo - Rainin' In My Heart 28. Lightning Slim - I'm Tired Waitin' Baby 29. Tabby Thomas - Hoodo Party 30. Lonesome Sundown - My Home Ain't Here 31. Jimmy Anderson - Naggin' 32. Silas Hogan - Trouble At Home Blues 33. LightninÆ Slim - Winter Time Blues 34. Jimmy Anderson - Goin Thru the Park 35. LightninÆ Slim - I'm Evil 36. The Nitehawks (Bo Melvin) - Boogie Chillun 37. Whispering Smith - Mean Woman Blues 38. Silas Hogan - I'm Goin In The Valley 39. Silas Hogan - Dark Clouds Rollin' 40. LightninÆ Slim - Can't Live This Life No More 41. Isaiah Chattman - Cold In Hand 42. Slim Harpo - Baby Scratch My Back 43. Slim Harpo - I'm Gonna Miss You (Like The Devil) 44. Silas Hogan - Hoo Doo Blues 45. Henry Gray - Showers Of Rain 46. Arthur Kelley - Number Ten At The Station (and number 12 is on the road) 47. Arthur Kelley - How Can I Stay (When All I Have Is Gone) 48. Moses Smith - Baton Rouge Breakdown 49. Silas Hogan - Honey Bee Blues 50. Silas Hogan - I Didn't Tell Her To Leave 51. Slim Harpo - The Music's Hot 52. Robert Pete Williams - Goodbye Slim Harpo 53. Slim Harpo - Talking Blues (aka Blues Hangover)