Track Listings (11) - Disc #1| All Artists: Fred Mcdowell, Johnny Woods Title: Mama Says I'm Crazy Members Wishing: 2 Total Copies: 0 Label: Fat Possum Release Date: 11/12/2002 Genres: Blues, Pop Style: Delta Blues Number of Discs: 1 SwapaCD Credits: 1 UPCs: 045778036424, 8714092036428 |
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Search - Fred Mcdowell, Johnny Woods :: Mama Says I'm Crazy
 | Fred Mcdowell, Johnny Woods Mama Says I'm Crazy Genres: Blues, Pop
Singer-guitarist Fred McDowell was a giant of the blues who'd spent much of his life pumping gas. Johnny Woods was a scrapper who somehow cobbled out a living between gambling and drinking and playing harp. On these record... more » |
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Amazon.com Singer-guitarist Fred McDowell was a giant of the blues who'd spent much of his life pumping gas. Johnny Woods was a scrapper who somehow cobbled out a living between gambling and drinking and playing harp. On these recordings, made in backwoods Mississippi shacks in 1967, the two bluesmen mix with primal authority. McDowell sings about love, hard times, and madness with unbridled passion as he pumps his slide 'n' drone acoustic guitar with rock & roll thrust, and Woods adds hand-muted cries and commentary that's raw as a skinned weasel. Picking out the African cadences of "Red Cross Store" or batting out their local juke-joint "hits" like McDowell's "Shake 'Em On Down," the duo blend the sloppy energy of pure feel with bursts of honed virtuosic precision. The result is blues music that not only cuts to the bone, but slices through it. Whether they're stomping out a powerhouse "John Henry" or slowly tugging every teardrop from a heartbreaker like "I Walked All Night Long," their playing here is as addictive as moonshine. --Ted Drozdowski Similar CDs
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CD ReviewsThe First Of The Great Mississippi Archives... Brett Lemke | www.maximumink.com | 03/07/2004 (5 out of 5 stars) "This session was recorded in 1965 at George Mitchell's house. Mitchell recorded over 70 hours of tapes during the 60's and 70 of Mississippi Fred and several others. Mama Says I'm Crazy marks the first of a series of sessions Fat Possum plans to release from the Mitchell Archive over the next several years. It's relaxed guitar-and-harmonica hill-country blues, which is part of a dying legacy of musicians. Now that the music is finally getting some attention, the king of Hill-country is finally getting the attention he deserved. He has greatly influenced artists such as T-Model Ford, R. L. Burnside, Solomon Burke, and Junior Kimbrough, and remains the forerunner for the genre. It's eleven soul-wrenching tracks of twelve-bar that will uncontrollably cause you to tap along with the beat. Johnny's harmonica never misses a beat, as he aggressively intertwines with Fred's sliding guitar licks. It's stripped-down and acoustic, and gives you the feeling that you're hitchhiking across the American south with a suitcase in your hand. Mississippi Fred McDowell is essential listening for any aficionado of the blues, and Fat Possum Records is making it possible for blues-lovers everywhere." Ferocious Mississippi blues.The Real Thing !!! JEAN-MARIE JUIF | BESANCON France | 02/25/2004 (5 out of 5 stars) "Woooow!!! Recorded 1967 in Como,Ms,here is a real "live" recording by the immense Mississippi Fred McDowell (Jan 12,1904-Jul 3,1972), a true giant of the country blues,and surely one of the best ones.The complicity between McDowell and harp player Johnny Woods is amazing,even if they didn't play together since 8 years at the time of this session.Of course,this record isn't for everybody's ears.If your favorite "blues" musicians are Duke Robillard,Poppa Chubby or Lucky Peterson,then you'll sure have some troubles listening to this music.Here is the real thing,a real,earthy,down home blues;an incredibely fascinating music,an even hypnotic one,recorded in some shack,down in Como, 37 years ago.McDowell is at his most ferocious playing here.He's an atypical blues artist:born at the beginning of the century,he waited until beeing over 60 to start a recording carreer.For some twenty years,he's one of my favorite blues players and singers,with Charley Patton,Bukka White,John Hurt,Jack Owens,Skip James,Henry Townsend and of course Robert Johnson;and,of course also,Robert Pete Williams. This "field" recording may be Fred McDowell's most authentic album;Johnny Woods' harp playing,which is very present,gives me the same feeling as Big Boy Spires' harp playing with Jack Owens;the empathy between these two legends of Mississippi blues is amazing.Of course,the music isn't sweet and polite;this is the devil's music,and some rough one.This is music at its most violent,urgent,and even vital;here is a very very great blues record,an essential one;it will drive you into McDowell's african,fascinating blues;McDowell's hard swinging,haunting rhythms are at their best.This guy had a magical right hand !!! As the next blues revival comes,with these movies by Wenders,Scorsese,Eastwood (and I guess his movie will be the best one)and others,I think the time is coming to forget Peterson,Chubby,and many others (including some Fat Possum so called "artists"),and to discover the real founders of the blues (and there are dozens of incredibely talented guys). Well,anyway,you can listen to what and who you want;but here is a really very important blues album,and it would be a terrible mistake to miss it." Fat Possum Comes Through unionlarry | Farmington, CT United States | 02/25/2003 (4 out of 5 stars) "I'm not sure what to make of the Fat Possum label -- Exploiters? Archivists? Precious signifiers? All of the above? -- but this release is full-throttle and full-throated. The high-octane interplay between McDowell and Woods has an almost primal ferocity; you can tell each note matters deeply, as if it were the musicians' last. A rousing listen, from start to finish."
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