Why Do You Treat Me So Mean/ Janie On My Mind/ Everyday I Have The Blues/ Achin' All Over/ Tell Me/ Blues Is Just A Feelin'/ Big Boss Man/ Where Can She Be/ If You Love Me/ Ready For The Blues/ Goin' To Get My Baby/ I Found Joy (55:43)
One of the greatest pleasures in being a `blues lover', is discovering a new recording by an artist who you presumed had either faded into obscurity or died, and when that recording reveals a performer who is still at the peak of his musical powers, playing with an inventiveness and depth of feeling that belies his years, then its significance and impact are immeasurable, and such is the case with this new set from (Little) Willie Foster.
Now in his mid 70s, Willie was raised in the classic blues tradition, born on a farm just outside Leland, Mississippi, he started picking cotton when just eight years old, and entertained himself blowing harmonica with his childhood friend and neighbour, Jimmy Reed. After serving in Europe during the Second World War, he moved to St Louis and then Chicago, where he would work Maxwell Street, playing for tips, honing his skills, aided by Walter Horton, eventually graduating to the Chicago club scene where he played regularly with Floyd Jones, his cousin Leroy Foster, Snooky Pryor and Lazy Bill Lucas, before joining and touring with Muddy Waters' band in 1953. He made his recording debut in 1953, releasing the single "Falling Rain Blues/ Four Day Jump" on Parrot to be followed by a session for Cobra in 1957 which produced "Crying The Blues/ Little Girl" - and as far as I can ascertain, that was his last session before this set recorded live in the studio for Palindrome in 1995.
Willie's music is steeped in tradition, his wailing harp and fractured vocals, full of character, capturing the classic Chicago sounds of the late 40s and early 50s to perfection, with the influences of Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed being the predominant features, although he always remains essentially his own man, and the backing musicians respond in similar fashion with Mark Goodwin's superb piano firmly entrenched in that 40s/ 50s timewarp, the rhythm section unobtrusively anchoring the session in the classic tradition, and Bobby Mack restrained and subtle with his beautifully understated guitar work making sure the spotlight remains firmly on Willie.
To quote Willie, when I listened to this set "I found joy", because this is my kind of music. Willie, in time honoured tradition, rearranges old favourites, borrowing snatches of melody and lyrics from classic blues songs and themes, and weaving them into his own blues masterpieces, "Tell Me", based on "Easy Baby", and "If You Love Me", a "Crosscut Saw" variant, being particularly fine examples of this art.
Other favourites include the slow, intense "Janie On My Mind", on which Willie's wavering, reflective vocals and mournful harp, allied to Goodwin's rolling piano and Bobby Mack's tasteful slide, conjure up visions of Muddy Waters, the superb "Big Boss Man" (one of three Jimmy Reed covers), where Willie's infectious harp rides the band's train-like rhythm section in fine fashion, "Everyday I Have The Blues", which is given a Mississippi treatment with Walter Horton influenced harp, and the wonderful title track, a deep soulful autobiographical blues with Goodwin's rolling piano well to the fore while Willie blows some beautiful harp fills.
At the end of the session Willie says, "That's the blues. Boy that come from the bottom of my heart", and you'd better believe him. Unreservedly recommended.
(Available from Palindrome Records, PO Box 1979, San Antonio, Texas 78297, USA)
Mick Rainsford