The blues were brewing in the South the first half of the 20th Century, and here are a pair of gents that painted the color with a big brush.
Pianist/vocalist Leroy Carr (1905-1935) had a distinctive relaxed and laid back style that went against the contemporary grain, influencing future vocalists like Nat Cole and Ray Charles. This 6 disc set covers the waterfront of his career on the Vocalion and Bluebird labels. He also penned some of the most famous blues tunes, covered by just about everyone from Big Joe Turner to Count Basie to Jimmy Witherspoon, with “How Long Blues” and “When The Sun Goes Down” while you can hear hints of other standards in his compositions “Papa’s On the House Top”, “Hurry Down Sunshine” and Midnight Hour Blues”. Throughout his career, Carr accompanied himself on his hard hitting piano, usually teamed with his longtime partner and guitarist Francis (Scrapper) Blackwell, who can be heard on things like “Straight Alky Blues” and “Muddy Water”. His songs contain a rich amount of dry humor, street smarts and a bit of a raconteur mixing parts of gentleman and jive. This guys the taproot of the boogie blues.
Jimmy Wilson (1918-1966) started out in gospel music with the Pilgrim Travelers before going secular and going deep into it. This two disc, 49 song collection chronicles his slow transition from a blues singer to an R&B jumping jiver that ended up on the pre-soul genre. This collection s starts with him belting out the blues with Bob Geddins’ Cavaliers on “Nobody’s Business” before leading his various All Stars configurations on “Honey Bee” and ”It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie”. Pieces like these and “Ethel Lee” are straight-ahead blues, but by 1953 he started transitioning into more rhythmic pieces, getting a big hit with “Tin Pan Alley” and grooving hard on “Jumping From Six To Six” while his 1958 hit “Please Accept My Love” was covered by no less than BB King. While overlooked today, this man deserves a second look and listen.