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Greetings Sorry Staters. Another week of world crazy and another week where the only thing that just about makes sense is music. I think I’d go mad if I was anywhere else than surrounded by records right now. My sanity owes a lot to having the privilege of being a part of the Sorry State family. Daniel might argue that his sanity is put into question with the weight of responsibility that comes with being the skipper of the good ship Sorry State, but he’s doing a brilliant job and we all love him so much. He takes such good care of us that it’s truly an honor and a pleasure to work here.
I’m sure one of my colleagues will write elsewhere this week about the new hot nugget from our friends Yellowcake titled A Fragmented Truth, but let me add my two thumbs up. I was really impressed with this one. The group has brought some new ideas into the mix with some interesting guitar stuff going on and other textures and sounds. Not that previous releases have been lacking, but this one really has progressed in leaps and bounds. Nice job folks. Go check it out and grab a copy.
At the store recently, several of the recent collection buys have had good blues records in them. Locals into quality blues have been snatching them up, but we still have plenty more bangers in the bins and a few that have yet to hit the floor. For those of you not within travelling distance to our store who might want to pick up a nice blues record, we have a few new reissues up on our webstore. I recently stocked a great collection by legend Otis Rush, which I would like to recommend to you today. It’s a nice gathering of his sides recorded in the 1950s for the Cobra label that also includes a few bonus cuts of alternative takes.
I’ve been a blues music fan for as long as I can remember. As a kid getting into Elvis, Johnny Cash and other rockabilly and country stars, it was an easy step to Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters et al. The blues had a baby, and they called it rock ‘n’ roll. Over the years, I have collected a sizable number of blues records (and CDs) covering recordings made literally over the last one hundred years. Although I like the older acoustic country Blues records, my preference is for electric blues, especially Chicago blues, that was cut between the mid 1950s and 1970s. If it gets funky like the stuff Lowell Fulson did, that’s great. If it gets psychedelic like on Muddy Waters’ Electric Mud album, even better.
In the 1980s I was a big fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan and he, along with another hero, Jimi Hendrix, both always mentioned Otis Rush and how big an influence he was on their style. Stevie went as far as naming his band Double Trouble after one of Otis’s Cobra singles. Mike Bloomfield, Peter Green and Eric Clapton were also disciples. With such heavy endorsements, I had to check out Rush and have picked up his records over the years as I found them. He has a lot of good ones. During the 1990s, he released a good modern blues record called Ain’t Enough Love Comin’ In, which included Small Faces keyboard man Ian McLagan. A few years later, when living in New York, I got the chance to see him play live, and he was great. Sadly, soon after, he suffered a stroke and retired from touring. In 2016, he appeared on stage in Chicago for a festival and although he didn’t play, he was honored by the mayor of the city who declared June 12th to be Otis Rush Day in Chicago.
With such a long career, I will leave you to pull up his Wiki page for full details. To summarize, though, he left his birthplace in Mississippi and followed in the footsteps of other Delta bluesmen and made his way to Chicago, where he formed his own band and performed in clubs around the city. Between 1956 and 1958 he cut eight singles for Cobra before they went bankrupt, and it is these recordings that form the core of his legacy. He moved to the Chess label in the sixties and cut a couple of sides for them and one for the Duke label. Towards the end of the decade, spurred by the blues revival on both sides of the Atlantic, he cut a killer record titled Mourning In The Morning at Fame studios for the Cotillion label, an Atlantic Records subsidiary, that had a nice soulful feel to it. I really like that one.
His style is a little different, and like my hero Jimi Hendrix he played left-handed with his guitar strung uniquely to give himself a distinct sound. Vocally, he’s a strong tenor and like a lot of singers learned his craft singing gospel in church and brings that into his sound.
His first single for Cobra was I Can’t Quit You Baby and could be said to have defined his style for the rest of his career. It was the label’s only national hit too, and of course would end up being covered by a certain rock band from England on their debut a decade plus later. Backing Otis on most of these Cobra sides were the cream of Chicago bluesmen, which included names like Willie Dixon and Little Walter. Ike Turner also features on guitar on many of the recordings.
It’s all killer stuff, and at the time only came out on singles. He didn’t record an actual album until the aforementioned one on Cotillion, released in 1969, but collected here on this edition you couldn’t ask for a better blues album.
Here at Sorry State, blues has historically not had many fans amongst the staff, but since John Scott began working here, I have found a buddy who loves it as much as I do. With his additional interest in country and bluegrass as well, I have found myself listening to and rediscovering tons of great records both familiar and new to me. We were jamming this Otis Rush collection the other day at the store, and it got the thumbs up from several of our customers, not least from our good friend Mike, who knows a thing or two about a good riff and solid axe work. Trust, if Mike gives a record the seal of approval you can buy with confidence. This is blues you can use.
You can click here to see a great clip of Otis Rush from the 1960s playing his signature song live taken from the awesome American Folk And Blues Festival archives.
Thanks for reading and see you next time.
Cheers- Dom