Description
Release Date: 2016
Label: Ace UK
Track List
1. Henry Gray – I’m A Lucky Lucky Man
2. Juke Boy Bonner – I’m Not Jiving
3. Lightning Slim – Miss Fannie Brown
4. Slim Harpo – Things Gonna Change
5. Boogie Jake – I Don’t Know
6. Lazy Lester – I Told My Little Woman
7. Lonesome Sundown – I’m A Mojo Man
8. Boozoo Chavis – Oh Ho She’s Gone
9. Clifton Chenier – Everybody Calls Me Crazy
10. Blue Charlie Morris – Don’t Bring No Friend
11. Lonesome Sundown – No Use To Worry
12. Jimmy Anderson – Baby Let’s Burn
13. Slim Harpo – Wild About My Baby
14. Silas Hogan – (Roaches In My Kitchen) Trouble At Home Blues
15. Elton Anderson – I Want To Talk To You (Baby)
16. Lazy Lester – Patrol Wagon
17. Ramblin’ Hi Harris – Early One Morning
18. Schoolboy Cleve – She’s Gone
19. Chris Kenner – Don’t Let Her Pin That Charge On Me
20. Clarence Garlow – I Feel Like Calling You
21. Boozoo Chavis – Bye Bye Catin
22. Clifton Chenier – Night And Day My Love
23. Henry Clement – Late Hour Blues
24. Henry Gray – Sonny Boy’s Cold Chills
25. Elton Anderson – Prove Me Guilty
26. Johnny Sonnier – Sitting Here All Alone
27. Vince Monroe (Mr Calhoun) – Prisoner’s Song
28. Jimmy Anderson – Frankie And Johnny
Review
Apart from a handful of sides clustered toward the end of the collection, almost everything on Ace’s 2016 Bluesin’ by the Bayou: I’m Not Jiving — the latest in their ongoing By the Bayou series, a collection that has run so long it’s hard to keep count of the volumes, although this would be the third designated as strictly “Bluesin'” — didn’t see release until many years after its recording. Some of the cuts showed up on various collectors imprints in the ’70s and ’80s but only a handful of the sides actually came out when they were recorded: Chris Kenner’s “Don’t Let Her Pin That Charge on Me,” Clarence Garlow’s “I Feel Like Calling You,” Boozoo Chavis’ “Bye Bye Catin,” and Henry Clement’s “Late Hour Blues,” to be specific. None of these were hits, which reemphasizes that this is an archival trawl, not a treasure trove of hits, and that’s the good thing about it: it’s a collection of swamp blues and Slim Harpo boogies, all distinguished by their cinematic murk and gritty rhythms, the very thing that makes this seem like a time machine back to the glory days of Louisiana juke joints. Stephen Thomas Erlewine
