By the time acoustic blues master Mississippi Fred McDowell finally plugged in for the first time, something this recording captures, his songs were already a major part of the emerging blues-rock scene of the late 1960s. ... more »The slide-guitar genius was a Delta blues purist of the first degree who ignored all else, even while serving as a significant influence on a new generation of blues players. His influence endures, and his music, in its original form, remains riveting. The best example is the timeless classic "You Got to Move," covered by the Rolling Stones in a surprisingly faithful rendition on 1971's Sticky Fingers and radically reconfigured by adventurous jazz diva Cassandra Wilson three decades later on Belly of the Sun. Both versions are excellent, but McDowell's original, saturated with searing sincerity and electrifying licks, is better. In similar style, McDowell demonstrates the inspiration behind "Kokomo Me Baby" (popularized by his protégé Bonnie Raitt), "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," and "Baby Please Don't Go," all core material of the modern blues-rock repertoire. All have since been done in different styles, but none have been done better. If you're looking for the real roots of modern blues and you haven't explored McDowell's ragged but righteous creations, you need to immediately redefine your search and hear his inspirational source music firsthand. --Michael Point« less
By the time acoustic blues master Mississippi Fred McDowell finally plugged in for the first time, something this recording captures, his songs were already a major part of the emerging blues-rock scene of the late 1960s. The slide-guitar genius was a Delta blues purist of the first degree who ignored all else, even while serving as a significant influence on a new generation of blues players. His influence endures, and his music, in its original form, remains riveting. The best example is the timeless classic "You Got to Move," covered by the Rolling Stones in a surprisingly faithful rendition on 1971's Sticky Fingers and radically reconfigured by adventurous jazz diva Cassandra Wilson three decades later on Belly of the Sun. Both versions are excellent, but McDowell's original, saturated with searing sincerity and electrifying licks, is better. In similar style, McDowell demonstrates the inspiration behind "Kokomo Me Baby" (popularized by his protégé Bonnie Raitt), "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," and "Baby Please Don't Go," all core material of the modern blues-rock repertoire. All have since been done in different styles, but none have been done better. If you're looking for the real roots of modern blues and you haven't explored McDowell's ragged but righteous creations, you need to immediately redefine your search and hear his inspirational source music firsthand. --Michael Point
CD Reviews
Great, but not the author of "Kokomo"
TW | Austin Texas | 04/27/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Before I nitpick about Amazon's official review, I'd like to say this is one of the finest blues albums ever.That said, Michael Point obviously hasn't listened to much of the early blues, or he'd have realized that Big Joe Williams sang "Baby Please Don't Go" in the 30's, Leroy Carr wrote "Kokomo Blues" (later "appropriated" by Robert Johnson and turned into "Sweet Home Chicago") and there's a very compelling argument that Gary Davis wrote "You Got to Move."The blues, however, is an artform of cliche's, the forerunner of sampling, and Mississippi Fred does great justice to every song he covers. My favorite tracks are both of the ones he speaks on and "Red Cross Store," which is a jam and a half!"
The Greatness of Mr. MAC DOWELL
Tony Thomas | SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA | 10/18/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've been a fan of Fred McDowell, who always pronounced his name MACK DowWELL, for more than 40 years. His music has inspired not only my guitar playing, but also my blues playing on the banjo which has gotten some reknown among old time music buffs and my fiddling. His personality shines through in his music and speech on his recordings. He was sharp, gritty, and real, very real.
Fred was never a professional bluesman in the African American context of Mississippi where he came up. He was a tractor driver and sometime preacher who was "discovered" actually early in the folk revival in the late 1950s. He became better known later in the early 1960s when he graced the Newport Folk Festivals and began making records of his own like this one(he had earlier appeared on anthologies of Mississippi music put out by Alan Lomax, I believe).
Fred represented a second generation of Mississippi hill country bluesmen. His music shows how the great blues recordings and performances of the great stars of 1930s blues like Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red and Big Maceo, and the local Mississippi masters like Son House and Bob Johnson, filtered down and were mixed with the on going tradition of continued acoustic players like Mr. McDowell.
This reality even more present in Robert Johnson, conflicts with the popular ignorance that Mississippi slide blues represents some kind of more original, more authentic, more traditional, or more African version of the blues isolated from the major currents of urban recorded blues of the 1920s, 1930s,and 1940s. In fact in the generation of bluesmen represented by Fred, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters the blues is in constant dialog with the big city bluesmen and blueswoman of the 1920s and 1930s who were the dominant blues artists of the acoustic period. Perhaps because McDowell did not have the pressures to manufacture "new" blues because he was never a commercial recording artist, you get a richer picture of the way that tunes by Leroy Carr or Big Maceo informed the Mississipi bluesmen and blueswomen.
There is a more personal style in some of the lack of polish, and some of the simplicity of McDowell's playing that is missing in a more masterful player like either the early or the revived Son House or Bukka White, let alone a total syncretist like Bob Johnson. For the most part, McDowell retained the acoustic sound, although he also played electric, and probably would have gone electric if he wasn't playing for a "folk" audience.
My favorite on this CD is what is called "You Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Anymore."
Anyone familiar with the Blues realizes this is a version of the great "Worried Life Blues," a masterpiece made famous in the late 1930s by Big Maceo and Tampa Red recording for Ezra Melrose on Bluebird in Chicago. If you have not have that track, buy one of their CDS with it. In fact, Tampa and Maceo's version is so good, that you should buy the CD even if you do not have a CD player, so it can be the first music you hear on the CD.
Like so many tunes of similar great lineage, Fred transforms it into a personal statement. While I have spent hours playing big Maceo and Tampa's version on repeat, I will never forget Fred's great lines like "If I had money like Henry Ford, I'd have a new woman on every row." I perform and have recorded this tune in Fred's style.
Fred's a good person to know from his music. His music is a unique picture of a stage of the blues not often found on record, closer to traditional folk culture, and not under the pressures that the bluesmen and blueswomen who became commercial recording artists were under."
Real slide guitar blues !
Dawn Camp | Lake Wales,FL | 01/19/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Mississippi Fred McDowell is one of the masters of slide guitar. He has never received the credit he deserves but those who have heard will never forget him. This CD I have on a album and I have looked for the CD for years and Iam so glad its finally here. When listening to Fred McDowell you must put yourself back in time and listen close, he is all by himself playing he doesn't need a band. Its hard to believe one man can make so much rhythm. Fred McDowell is what the blues is all about, and there is no one who comes close to his original, distinctive style."
Fiery slide guitar blues
Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 12/01/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"No, "Mississippi" Fred McDowell of Rossville, Tennessee (!) doesn't play any rock 'n' roll, but he does play a mean, slashing slide guitar, some of the best, most muscular slide playing I have ever heard.
Fred McDowell is backed by drums and bass, although they are mixed quite far into the background, and he plays an electric slide guitar, which worried some blues purists, but the music is as stark and sparse as anything you'll ever hear. And his occational monologues, delivered in a rich country dialect, ony adds to the charm and the value of this fine document.
(The original liner notes stupidly warn that "unless you're from Mississippi", McDowell may be hard to understand, which is not the case at all, but his soliloquies are nevertheless fully transcribed. Why people from Mississippi would be the only ones able to understand a fully articulate elderly gentleman from Tennessee is something of a mystery.)
This reissue of the original Capitol album from 1969 adds bonus five tracks totaling 20 minutes, and includes a great take on Big Joe Williams' "Baby Please Don't Go", as well as powerful country blues originals like "61 Highway", "Jesus Is On The Mainline", "Red Cross Store" and "You Got To Move".
It falls a little short of the 1995 Capitol re-release "The Complete Sessions", which tacked on ten tunes, but "I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll" is still a very enjoyable collection, and a fine introduction to the Tennessee bluesman."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1