Search - Peter Green :: Hot Foot Powder

Green does Johnson again

Randy Blythe | Birmingham, Alabama USA | 05/18/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As much as I want it, looks like I'll hear no more of those searing, soulful guitar solos I listened to with awe during Peter Green's heyday as a blues/rock star. These days, Green apparently prefers that bandmate and buddy Nigel Watson take up the lead slack while Green concentrates on singing, delta-style picking, and harmonica work. Unfortunately, though no slouch himself as as guitarist and vocalist (Watson sings perhaps a third of these tunes), Watson is not Peter Green. For that matter, thirty years on, Green himself is not the firebrand he once was. He does strike me, however, as a deserving heir to Johnson's bedeviled-bluesman legacy, and in that sense this recording is a success. Green's over-fifty voice has a raspy poignancy that fits renditions of "From Four Until Late," "Dead Shrimp Blues," "Drunken Hearted Man," and "Come On In My Kitchen" perfectly. The fine Splinter Group is joined this outing by luminaries Buddy Guy, Honeyboy Edwards, Dr. John, Otis Rush, Joe Louis Walker, and Hubert Sumlin."

Robert, is that you?

deepbluereview | SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA USA | 05/19/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Peter Green and long time friend Nigel Watson have assembled an all star cast on this second, and final tribute to Robert Johnson. If you enjoyed Green's 1998 "Robert Johnson Songbook", you will love this sequel. Both CD's are probably the closest and best rendition of Robert Johnson you are likely to hear. No fancey fret work or screeming vocals, just down home style delta blues. Fans of older green material should seek out the 1998 "SOHO Sessions" album, rare but well worth the search. In either case you won't be disappointed."

Delightful updating of Johnson's classic songs

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 11/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Hot Foot Powder" is a bit tougher than its companion volume, "The Robert Johnson Songbook", with the drums and guitars being somewhat more prominent, but it still sticks pretty close to Robert Johnson's original recordings of these 13 classic blues tunes.



1998's "The Robert Johnson Songbook" contained Peter Green's versions of about half of Johnson's songs, and "Hot Foot Powder" contains the other half, most notably a powerful rendition of "Crossroad Blues", a sublime slide guitar-driven "Traveling Riverside Blues", and a great, swinging take on "From Four Until Late" with excellent blues piano playing by R&B veteran Dr John.



But it's all great, really. Green's vocals may not be powerful, excactly, but they are soulful and he has an excellent sense of rhythm and timing.

And "Hot Foot Powder" really serves to remind the listener how great Robert Leroy Johnson actually was, and how many contemporary rock and blues artists are influenced by him (and thus indirectly by Mississippi blues greats Son House and Charley Patton).

The up-tempo "They're Red Hot" swings like a Dixieland jazz tune, while "Malted Milk" and "Come On In My Kitchen" are played as traditional country blues. And the different arrangements make this album a delightfully varied listening experience, thus accentuating the strength of Johnson's songs...if Green had chosen to cut every song with just an acoustic guitar backing him up, it wouldn't have been as much fun!



There are guest stars a plenty here, but none of them overdo their part or overwhelm the songs, and their contributions fit in very well with the overall mellow tone:

Howlin' Wolf's phenomenal lead guitarist Hubert Sumlin plays on "Dead Shrimp Blues", the slashing slide guitars on "Traveling Riverside Blues" are courtesy of Joe Louis Walker and David "Honeyboy" Edwards, and Otis Rush and Buddy Guy pop up as well.



This is a thoroughly enjoyable album, highly recommended to any and all blues lovers. A fresh, yet faithful look at Robert Johnson's classic 30s singles, and one of my favorite "latter-day" blues CDs."