Search - Yank Rachell :: Blues Mandolin Man

This is a reissue of the Blind Pig LP of 1986. Licensed by Random Chance Reocrds (a brand new independent label for blues and jazz) it is the first time for this album in CD format and it includes a previously unreleased track. Yank Rachell, was unique as a bluesman in using the mandolin as a lead instrument. His career spanned from the 1920s to the late 199o's (he died in 1997). This album includes a selection of his songs written over a span of many decades. Rooted in a country blues tradition, this band shows how the old bluesman, Yank Rachell, played for public events, and in clubs, at the end of his career. It combines country roots with a more urban, "Chicago Blues" style. END time of his death, was one of a handful of bluesmen who had recorded in the 1920's who still performed and recorded. born to a family of sharecroppers in Brownsville, TN. He first recorded in Memphis in 1929. He accompanied his life-long friend, Sleepy John Estes. He also recorded in 1934, 38 and 41 with the original Sonny Boy Williamson, who revolutionized blues harmonica playing. He worked with Robert Jr. Lockwood and Henry Townsend before WW 2. After a hiatus of 20 years he was "rediscovered" by Bob Koester of Delmark Records in the early 1960s. He recorded for Delmark and toured the U.S. and Europe with Sleepy John Estes and others. He reocrded with Taj Mahal in the 1960s. Taj Mahal sang one of Rachell's songs in the soundtrack of the first Blues Brothers movies. Ry Cooder has spoken about how he studied Rachell's mandollin style as a teenager and how it inspired him to learn the mandolin. In the 1980s and 1990s Rachell performed with Charlie Musselwhite and John Sebastian (reocording with Sebastian on the CD "I want my Roots"). BAND_MEMBERS: Peter Roller, electric guitar Leonard Marsh Jr., drums Sheena Rachell, electric bass Peter "madcat" Ruth, harmonica