Album Reviews

These ten acoustic tunes cut by Buddy Guy on 6 and 12 string guitar, and Junior Wells on harmonica back in 1981 during a visit to Sysmo Studios in Paris, France states the case for the acoustic blues as well as any album I can think of, but if you’re not into the genre, don’t expect this reissue to pull you around. Well, take that back: the sound may drag you in.

It’s an old fashioned jam session studio date, probably arranged in haste, with the two covering chestnuts from John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Junior Wells and of course, their mentor Muddy Waters, among others, plus some Guy and Wells originals.

There’s Hooker’s “Boogie Chillun” and “I’m In The Mood,” Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me To Do” and “That’s Allright,” plus a very different read on Waters’s “My Home Is In the Delta,” which should be familiar to most everyone from his version on Folk Singer. Guy offers his “Don’t Leave Me,” and “Give Me My Coat And Shoes,” and Wells delivers “Wrong Doing Woman” and “Big Boat (Buddy and Junior’s Thing).” There’s also a spirited version of “High Heel Sneakers” with the two trading verses in front of Guy’s clean, percussive guitar lines and Wells’s juicy harmonica exclamations.

The Blues has always been about making a lot out of a little, and these guys show how it’s done. Once the side starts you’ll be in their grip, thanks in no small part to the superb recording, which has immediacy, transparency, intimacy and transient detail to spare. The stage is set with Guy’s guitar right, and his voice half-way between center and right. Well gets the same treatment on the other side. A subtle, pleasing amount of studio reverb gels the picture smartly. Pressing quality is stunning, with jet-black backgrounds throughout.

Originally issued on the French Isabel label as Going Back (900.510), this set is also available on CD (Alligator ALCD 4802) but it won’t sound like this! And while your hunting for used records, try to find Junior Wells’ South Side Blues Jam (Delmark Stereo DS-628 LP) featuring Wells, Guy, Louis Meyer, Otis Spann, Earnest Johnson and Fred Below. It was Spann’s final studio performance and all I can say is this disc, recorded live in the studio is a sonic 12!!!!!