Blues...With A Feeling Archive

Many bluesmen have idols, some get to meet great older bluesmen who help them shape and hone their craft. There are also those who buy the music, listen to the albums and check out live performances. Roosevelt Sykes did not have these opportunities.
BR> His inspiration and love for the blues came when he had the chance to see and hear a blues singer named Jesse Bell entertaining on the street in Helena, Arkansas. Roosevelt was born in Helena, but his parents moved to St. Louis, Missouri when he was six years old. However, he spent summers there on his grandfather's farm.

Roosevelt was excited and fascinated with Bell, an itinerant bluesman, whom he said was "The fellow who really inspired me to love the blues." The irony is that young Sykes never met Jesse Bell--and that Bell never saw or knew him. But Roosevelt, excited and motivated to play the blues, practiced and taught himself to play the organ in the church where his grandfather was as part-time minister.

When he returned to St. Louis each year, he practiced on the organ in the school he attended. When hewould be practicing young girls were infatuated with him and his playing that they gave him the nickname that was to be with him all of his life. He said, "The boys said the girls were buzzing around me like bees. They said I must be dripping with honey." From that day on Roosevelt was known to his person friends, and professionally as "The Honey Dripper." And, he always proudly introduced himself by the name when he performed.

Later Roosevelt changed from the organ to the piano. At the young age of 14, deciding to dedicate himself fully to playing the blues, he quit school and got a gig at Jazzland, a St. Louis club. When he was 15 he left this club and started playing gin joints on the wild side, places that were so rowdy, when he played he probably had to dodge bullets that often flew freely in these jook joints. And, he often had to try to play, sing and talk loud above the noise of guns (and often loud fights, including knifings).

To rise above the fever pitch sounds, Roosevelt sang in loud, raspy, robust voice and attacked the piano with both hands, which he was taught by a piano player named Lee Green who influenced him stromgy and was also his mentor. Sykes played his own brand of hot, funky, get down boogie woogie blues. Roosevelt, who was a dapper, well polished man, a stylish dresser, rose above the crowd, transcended it in his quest to play the blues. He was singularly focused and was determined that nothing would stop him from plying the craft that he loved so much.

On the release Music Is My Business, it is evident that he felt playing the blues was his calling. But the album also reveals an experienced, seasoned musician and a man whose experience about life, love and the world around him, allowed him to relate in song, in his music--.allowed his to philosophy, satirize and humorize in a highly entertaining manner.

Sykes is joined on this album by talented, special guest bluesmen Johnny Shines (vocals, guitar), Louisiana Red (guitar and vocals), and Sugar Ray (harmonica). The quartet serves up some rhythmic, rocking boogie blues that run the gamut of blues and experiences, and then some. On the title cut, "Music Is My Business," Sykes sets the mood of the album and about how he feels about playing the blues when he sings, "Music is my business...and I am not ashamed...music is not a game...but Mr. Piano is my name. Jazz, boogie and the blues are what I practice the most...my phone line is open and they call me from coast to coast."

On "Stop Stopping Me," reminiscing that when he was a young man people thought he was very wild because he liked dancing and singing. And although he respectes their age and wisdom, he tells them they had their day and that now he wants to have his say. When he introduces the tune he relates, "I'm doing this for the benefit of young people who won't give a chance to do their thing."

The tune "Hot Pants" (and he is not talking about the popular style of short pants, either), striding the keys, Sykes serves up a hip, harmonica and guitar backed, jumping tune about a lovely young thing that cannot be true to any one man ("Don't you understand...you Got Something to worry every man). On "A Good Woman," that is sung to the accompaniment of some moving slow guitar playing and a first-rate, moaning harmonica solo, Roosevelt tickles the ivories and bemoans the fact that he can't find a good woman because all the the women he meets "sneak around like rattle snakes and sting you like a bee." On this piece on Music Is My Business and others such as "Leaving Chicago" ("Leaving Chicago cause we tired of that ice and snow. Going back to the country and get my old cotton sack. I'm gonna buy me a wagon and get rid of my new Cadillac"), Roosevelt demonstrates that the blues can be light and humorous, even when one is reflecting on the often woeful ups and downs one experiences in love.

"On The Funk Side," Sykes shows that he can rock and roll with the times. On this this jumping, honky tonk tune, although doing the new dances makes his arms tired and his back sore he still dances because "The band is playing and the music is hot." However, he prefers to dance close and says, "Look me dead in the eyes baby...rock me in the morning, rock me late at night...tell the whole world that you're out of sight....we're on the funky side." The final piece on Music Is My Business,, the standard blues tune "How Long," which was written by Johnny Shines who plays guitar on the date, is given a nice, bouncy, upbeat, funk-i-fied take.

Roosevelt Sykes was a highly talented bluesman, a creative artist whose stellar career spanned some fifty years in which he recorded many albums for a number of record companies. Sykes was a consummate entertainer who loved and lived to make music. His life was music and, indeed music was marvelously and wonderfully his business.

©Nokhanya (L'cinda Scott-McCall) ©1996-2005
The Blues Alliance, 1996

"We have jet-propellered tongues...painted skins, swiveling pupils, gust blasting moans and/the supersonic sound of invisible orchestras."

- Jayne Cortez -</div>

Blues can be poetic...can be about justice...about poetic justice...about love and other affairs...such as love of the blues...things that cause the blues...but all done in a poetic way.

Jayne Cortez is a poet who has been creating fine poetry over twenty years. She is a prolific, gifted artist who powerful poetry-jazz/blues is popular around the globe, and has performed at jazz festivals, night clubs, universities, in such cities as Paris, Berlin, Milan, Brasilia, Salvador and Beijing. She has written ten books and has completed eight recording of poetry and music. And, she is an inspiration, including to the rap generation.

Jayne loves jazz and blues and pays homage to bluesmen--gives credit where credit is due to bluesmen collectively--and to some particular ones, and some beloved blues guitars too. And Jayne, who was married to Ornette Coleman and who knows a lot about classic jazz and blues, has great sensibilities when it comes to these genres. She is also an activist who knows a lot about what has/causes people to have the blues of what she says is "Blues in the deepest sense and a progressive sense."

On her release Taking The Blues Back Home, Jayne & The Firespitters: Bern Nix (guitar), Al McDowell (bass), son Denardo Coleman (drums) and a superb lineup of special guests musicians: Billy Branch (harmonica), Carl Weathersby (guitar), Talib Kibwe (saxophone), Frank Lowe (tenor sax), Nakoyo Suso (vocals), Sarjo Kuyateh and Salieu Suso (kora), and Epizo Bangoura (djimbe drum) serve up some very tasty poetry, bluesy blues, jazzy blues, Gambian accented blues and very relevant blues.

On the opening title cut, "Taking The Blues Back Home," sassy, rhythmically Jayne say she's taking the blues back home "Before Robert Johnson comes back from the grave and says the blues been crapped on." With melodic, Gambian vocal backing on "Mojo 96," poet/musicians sing "You have to have Something to protect you from undue influences. You have to have something to turn your luck around. You have to have a helping hand, like a mojo hand."

"The Guitars I Used To Know" is a staccato spit fire , height energy homage to all kinds of axes, those "With excavated rhythms, names like "Freddie Mae and Danny Boy and Let It Be guitars with the howling of mother of pearls hyperventilating into Kansas, romances guitars standing on bandstands and hollering like hollow monkeys. Guitars circling with teeth on a guitar and hollering ow, ow." Two pieces were written for some legendary musicians. "Talk To Me" was written for Don Cherry and "Blues Bop For Diz," for Dizzy Gillespie. "Endangered Species List Blues," in the tune of some classic, mean mojo blues says, "When you spell yourself on the threshold of distinction it's you and your portable chemical toilet going to hell under friendly fire. It's not what's Up that's going down...."

Jayne Cortez is a poignant, brilliant, laser-tongued/thinker/creator of words, blues words set in musical time, blues that not only make your holler, but make you think, feel and move forward, as in progressiveness, as on Taking The Blues Back Home.

©Nokhanya (L'cinda Scott-McCall) ©1996-2005
Harmolodic, Inc.,Verve, 1996

Angola Prisoners' Blues

Angola Prison is an institution that is still in operation at Angola, Louisiana. It has a reputation for being a repressive, often inhuman prison, and it has been the site of many insurrections that have been staged by inmates who protest conditions.

The album which was recorded between 1952 and 1959, features inmate Robert Pete Williams (guitar and vocals). Guitarist Matthew "Hogman" Maxey was given the nickname "hogman" because an a kid his favorite past time was acting as a veterinarian. His patients were his father's hogs. However, most of Maxey's patients did not survive.) Robert Welch called "Guitar" and "King of the Blues" is featured on guitar and vocals. Roosevelt Charles is also heard on vocals and guitar. Chris Schwartz who recorded the album noted about Charles that he..."was repeatedly struck by a sense of tragic waste....Charles is sensitive, personable, intelligent, and imaginative--a highly gifted creator, performer, and interpreter of African American music. His rebellion against society appears to be at least in part the explosion which results when a driving, intensely creative man can find no outlet for his energies and talents...."

The themes of the prisoners' blues often talk about what led to their incarceration, reflect their experience in prison and deal with affairs of the heart. In the intro monologue, "Prisoners' Talking Blues," Williams talks about life in prison which is so unbearable it makes him think of committing suicide. "Staggolee," of which there many versions and many rhythm and blues and blues hits, is performed by Hogman Maxey as the original, traditional roots blues that (simply, with up tempo guitar strumming accompaniment), graphically relates the death of Billy at the hands of Staggolee as follows, "...The bullet came through him and broke my window glass....You don't believe he's gone just look at the bullet in his head."

On "Some Got Six Months," which Robert Pete Williams created on the spot, he laments the long sentence he received for his first offense, in the course of the song he sings, ""You know the old judge must have been mad darlin,' when he gave me my sentence he throwed the book...First time in trouble, I done get no fair trial at all...." The original version of "Since I Fell For You" entitled "Still In Love With You..." an A Capella rendering by Thelma Mae Joseph, who works in the prison...is a powerful version of this simple lover's plea. "Strike At Camp I," recounts how a strike for better living conditions has a successful outcome.

Angola Prisoners' Blues is a poignant blues chronicle of the lives of prisoners, of how they use blues to bear prison life. And, it reveals their capacity to survive and in some cases rise above the conditions and of times when they protest--rebel against the inhuman conditions--and retain their dignity and sense of self worth.

©Nokhanya (L'cinda Scott-McCall) ©1996-2005

Arhoolie, 1959, 1996

Etta James
Mystery Lady
Songs of Billy Holiday

"The mystery lady is my mother. The mystery lady is also Billy Holiday, who in so many ways reminds me of my mother. And I suppose the mystery lady is me. It took me a long time to get to Mystery Lady because these songs require maturity. I wanted to be honest about what I was feeling, to pay my respects to Billie, not by imitating her, but by singing her songs in my own style."

Etta James, Mystery Lady

Etta James has been compared with Lady Day, Billy Holiday. True, both were gifted with wonderful, one-of-a-kind talents. Etta voices, talks about her pain, especially in interviews after her autobiography, "Rage To Survive was released. One's legendary greatness is still celebrated today. The other has regained the stature she had as a legendary blues, jazz and Rhythm & Blues giant. The similarities of their life styles are also cited. However, there is also a similarity that is often overlooked: both Billy and Etta were tremendous survivors...as Etta points out about The Lady, "Yet for all the pain in her voice, she sang them (songs) like a woman set on surviving."

At the age of 15 Etta wrote, "I recorded and sang 'Roll With Me Henry," a risque, shouting, rhythm and blues monster that was a phenomenal hit. Etta performed this popular tune as she toured with the fabulous Johnny Otis Band. She went on to record such hits as "Something's Got A Hold On Me, "Tell Mama," "All I Could Do Is Cry," I Just Want To Make Love To You," I'd Rather Go Blind," "Prisoner of Love"...and yours truly's all time favorites "Sunday Kind Of Love," "At Last" and "Trust In Me."

As Etta's Grammy award-winning release, Mystery Lady, so poignantly illustrates, she is back and in fine style. The selections chosen for this album are lovely, easy, and easy to love, moving tunes. And, as icing on the cake, the masterful, ultra talented, genius composer/pianist Cedar Walton, wrote the arrangements and contributed some truly marvelous piano accompaniment. Etta says of Cedar, "His charts are so clean and crisp. Not a wasted note. And his own playing is so delicate. His jazz is precise without being uptight."

The tracks on this release, which Etta says she grew up loving, display the sensitive side of Etta's soul. It contains favorite tunes that Lady Day made famous. Etta, who is known for really belting out upbeat, rhythmic blues and R & B songs, displays her adaptability by beautifully performing mellow, soft, passionate renditions of these fine standards.

Etta's versatility, fine vocal control, and range are shown on such tunes as "The Very Thought Of You," "I'll Be Seeing You," and "The Very Thought of You."And, her excellent expression, depth and wonderful interpretation are evident throughout the album, especially her reflective, sentimental, melancholy takes on the highly blues and R & B tinged tunes "The Masquerade Is Over" and "How Deep Is The Ocean." Etta's impeccable phrasing is heard on the easy flowing, bluesy versions of "Hush Now" and "You've Changed" that features Cedar's tasty piano which accents and complements very nicely. The hauntingly beautiful renditions of "Lover Man," "The Man I Love" and "Body And Soul" conjure up visions of Etta's "Sunday Kind Of Love."

Listening to Mystery Lady one can easily get the feeling that Etta is an artist who has perfected her craft. She has especially developed and refined her style of singing the slow, sentimental jazzy blues. And, on this date, Etta, as she said she wanted to do, paid her respects to Billy in a powerfully fine way.

Etta James is more than a survivor, she is tremendously and incredibly talented creative artist, who has worked hard to triumph and to present her art in an uncompromising way.

©Nokhanya (L'cinda Scott-McCall) ©1996-2005

Private Music, 1994

Herman E. Johnson &
Smoky Babe (Robert Brown)
Louisiana Country Blues

"This section of the state (Clarksdale County in Mississippi), part of the delta country, has produced a long line of blues singer--Charlie Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Joe Williams, Tommy McClennan, and innumerable others who have never been recorded."

Dr. Harry Oster, 1972

Smoky Babe, Robert Brown, was born in 1927 in Itta Bena, Mississippi, fifty mile from Clarksdale, the area where many of the legendary bluesmen came from. Johnson, like many other country blues artists, was very little formal education, worked many back-breaking, degrading, low paying jobs--which was often seasonal work on plantations and in the slum areas of cities. The highly talented bluesmen who eked out livings working on these jobs all day, also performed evenings in clubs playing for mere "dimes, quarters and half dollars dancers tossed on the stage," Oster says.

On the album, Louisiana Country Blues, Smoky Babe (Robert Brown) plays songs that reflect the reality he and many blues guitarists lived in rural Southern towns. Playing the blues was often a way of surviving and maintaining a semblance of dignity in spite of the poverty stricken conditions many of them lived. Blues was an outlet and a creative expression that allowed them to use their ability to create something that gave them relief and pleasure. Their playing and singing also gave enjoyment to members of their communities who often lived in similar conditions. Blues artists, like other African Americans whose circumstances were the same as theirs, believed and hoped their lives would improve, that things would get better. Many bluesmen/philosophers also used humor in the songs they sang--especially about love affairs--as an outlet from their problems.

Smoky Babe's contributed fourteen songs to the album. The opening song, "I'm Broke And I'm Hungry," was often the lot of many bluesmen, but was not commonly a theme they sang about. Many of Brown's tunes--as are many blues songs--are about affairs of the heart, such as "Too Many Women," "My Baby Told Me," "Black Ghost," and "My Baby Put Me Down." And, others are folksy, as is "Rabbit Blues" which was once a children's game, or are sentimental tunes like "Going Back Home."

Herman Johnson's life closely parallels that of Smoky Babe. He too is a gifted, talented blues guitarist, singer, and song writer. The themes he sings about echo those of Brown: romantic relationships, hardships ("Depression Blues"), the hope for a better life--often in the after life ("Where The Mansion's Prepared For Me"). Johnson sings about love affairs on such songs as "You Don't Know My Mind," which is very much in the "Hard Hearted Hanna" and I've Got To Laugh To Keep From Crying" tradition. However, Johnson refers to the problems he has in his relationships as "a little female difficulty."

Both Brown and Johnson use innovative guitar playing techniques that had been originated and popularized by other bluesmen, and included using the guitar to imitate the human voice (Brown's uses it on "My Baby She Told Me"); the bottle neck style of playing, which was also used by Son House, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, involves wearing the neck of a bottle on the left hand and sliding it on the strings to create a whining sound that resembles the human voice (Brown uses it on "Bad Whisky"); and carrying on the blues tradition of Blind Willie which involves leaving words out of songs and letting the guitar speak for the singer.

Louisiana Country Blues, which features two fine blues guitarists, Sugar Babe, Robert Brown, and Herman Johnson, chronicles two of a number of unsung blues greats who were heretofore unrecorded. And, it showcases their artistry, creativity, indomitable human spirit and will.

©Nokhanya (L'cinda Scott-McCall) ©1996-2005

Arhoolie , 1995

Amede Ardoin
I'm Never Comin' Back

"Cajun and Zarico [Zydeco] music would not be what it is today without Amede Ardoin and his musical recordings of the late 1920s and early 30s. His fortes include his uniquely eloquent lyrics, his resonating voice, and his driving accordion virtuosity."

Michael Doucet, January 25, 1995

Amede Ardoin, a French speaking African American was a unique, individualistic talent...a creative blues pioneer born in Eunice, Louisiana. Today, French Cajun musicians such as Michael Doucet, who named his son after him, pay homage to Ardoin who "lived the blues and injected his spirit into our music."
Ardoin was a small, slightly built man of about five feet, who made his living hitchhiking through Louisiana to play and pass the hat for contributions. Creole fiddler Carnay Fontenot whose father played with Ardoin said, "Amede would put his accordion in that sack and every day would get to the gravel road with his accordion, hitchhike, and he didn't give a damn which direction it was--he'd go somewhere where he could pick up a few nickels." He was well respected for his music and often those who hired Amede, such as farmers, didn't hire him to farm but to play his accordion and sing blues songs--which he created spontaneously, made up on the spot. Ardoin's blues were rooted in Louisiana French folk songs.

Amede was a rare creative artist. He had a passionate, high pitched, emotional vocal styling that he used to deliver the blue songs he sung, which he usually created while he was performing. The songs were often about his observations of relationships between men and women--boy friends/girl friends, husbands/wives--about how men were not treating women well. Of course this did not stand him in good stead with men--especially since he developed and sang the songs from conversations he heard in clubs, and often the men he was singing about were present.

Nor was Amede popular with whites who did not see him as a "professional singer" but as a black man who wouldn't work--a bum--one who was popular with white audiences, men and women, who patronized, paid him and protected him from danger. Toward the end of his performing days, he had made so many enemies that each time he played he risked his life. Club owners who continued to hire him would build chicken pens for him to perform in.

Ardoin's bluesy, French folk-inspired songs of the 1920s and 30s, which were one-steps, two-steps and waltzes included "La Valse A Abe" ("Abe's Waltz"), "Two-Step De Eunice,""Tante Aline," "Two-Step de Mama," "Two Step De Prarie Soileau," and "Madam Atchen." Amede's blues such as "Le Blues De Prison" reflected the realities of his life. But this tune is bright and upbeat, the bluesy aspect is only in the vocalizing.

However, racism and hatred were the main threats to Ardoin's life, as they were and still are for many black men in America. Amede who, apparently loved creating, playing, singing and accompanying himself on accordion wanted to do nothing more than express his artistic capabilities and make a little money. But since his audience was primarily white, there were whites who didn't like it and sought to put an end to his performing for and with Cajuns. A severe beating Amede received, that was fueled by racial hatred, reportedly left him with severe brain damage. The doctor who examined him after the attack said, "Well they ruined his life whoever done that thing, they done hit him so hard he's not going to have his right mind." Amede continued playing music following the beating, but toward the end of the 1930s he was committed to a mental institution in Pineville, Louisiana where it is believed that he spent his last days.

Amede Ardoin created and recorded 34 songs in the years 1929-1934 in three recording sessions. The first session for Columbia Records was in New Orleans on December 9, 1929. The second date also took place in New Orleans on November 19 and 20. The last recording was made just shortly before Christmas in 1934 in New York City

Although Amede Ardoin's life and career were tragic and short, the fine body of blues music he created and the Zarico music he played, which became known as Zydeco after his death, have survived and are being revived, appreciated and celebrated today.

Keb' Mo'
Just Like You

Perhaps the popularity of blues is due to the fact that it tells a story plainly, unpretentiously, truthfully with real conviction and true grit. And, at the same time relates folksy tales, sometimes humble, sometimes larger than life--of life, love, unrequited love, joy, hurt, and pain.

In the finest tradition of such blues greats as, W.C. Handy, Robert Johnson, Lowell Fulsome, Sonny Boy Williamson, B. B. King, Albert Collins, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Muddy Waters, to name a few, Keb' Mo' is emerging as a contemporary blues artist rooted in the finest blues tradition. On his current release, Just Like You, Keb' Mo' wonderfully spins, weaves and conjures up tales that spring to life in great mind visions. His playing is fresh, yet very authentic. The life themes he plays and sings about are universal, are contemporary and are timeless. The songs he sings are life stories, love storie, are lessons learned from loving (and not necessarily being loved in return).

Keb' Mo,' born Kevin Moore and raised in South Central Los Angeles, was recruited from a club band by the legendary blues vocalist and violin player, Poppa John Creach. His experience as a performer has ranged from working with saxophonist Monk Higgins to jamming with Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Witherspoon, Pee Wee Clayton, and Albert Collins. Keb' Mo' has performed as support to such artists as Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Joe Cocker, and Jeff Beck. He has performed in music festivals ranging from the Chicago Blues Festival to the Montreux Jazz Festival. His numerous awards include Country-Acoustic Blues Album of the Year for the release Keb' Mo,' in the 16th Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards.

Keb' Mo' is a highly talented, greatly accomplished, polished bluesman. On Just Like You, he writes, plays and sings about what he sees, experiences and feels about life. He sings about his origins...from whence he came on "Compton" and "More Than One Way Home, ( where he is joined by Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne) which is a song Keb' Mo' says is "a bit of my life, bits of other people's lives..." And his compositions are observations, reflections on and feelings about life.

On "Git Down With Me Baby," Keb' Mo' recreates the feeling of a live, swinging Friday/Saturday night "Let The Good Times Roll" (shades of Fats Domino and Taj Mahal) jook joint, honky tonk time as he serves up some nice, hot, tasty guitar licks...have mercy, Keb' Mo.' On Just Like You" and "You Can Love Yourself," The lyrics express poignant thoughts and feelings about life. On the first, where again he gets a little help from his friends Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, he explains "It is more about the human soul evolving. You think you have learned something, then you get on down the road and it happens again. You think, hey I thought I went through this already." And the lyrics of "You Can Love Yourself" relate, "My mother says she love me, but she could be jiving too. If nobody loves and you're feeling like dust on an empty shelf, just remember, you can love yourself."

"I'm In A Dangerous Mood" is a real get down, get real, honest-to-goodness love song on which Keb' Mo' says I'm going to "Put a rose on your pillow where you lay your pretty head,rub your tired shoulders, bring you dinner in bed." Standing At The Station" is a plaintive song about love gone wrong thatbrings to mind Albert King's "Born Under A Bad Sign," on which he proclaims "If it hadn't been for bad luck I wouldn't have no luck at all." "Hand It Over," is a gospel-inspired, motivating, uplifting tune. ("Ain't no mountain you can't climb, no answer you can't find.")

"Last Fair Deal Going Down" is sung with such rooty authenticity and conviction it would have made legendary bluesman Robert Johnson proud. "Lullaby Baby Blues," a tender, gentle tune is the perfect concluding song for Just Like You because like the release, it showcases the trememdous scope of this versatile, multi-talented bluesman's vast creative abilities.

Jimmy McCracklin
My Story

Recently, after four decades of dues paying and creating some great music, blues master Jimmy McCracklin received the Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, and in previous years had been inducted in the Bay Areas Blues Society's Hall of Fame. McCracklin, a prolific writer, singer and producer created such songs as the standard tune "The Thrill Is Gone," that was a smash hit for B. B. King, "Tramp," that was successfully recorded by Lowell Fulsom, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, "The Walk," which started a dance trend, "Think,""Just Got To Know (that McCracklin produced and released on his label Art-Tone)," and "Shame, Shame, Shame."

After not recording for a number of years, In 1991, McCracklin released the album My Story, which was termed a comeback release. McCracklin did not see it as such. He looked at it as just another part in the evolution of his career. The Oakland resident still performs in Europe, in blues and jazz festivals and in the Bay Area.

My Story, which was produced in Oakland and New Orleans, features the cream of the blues crop, including the talented Miss Irma Thomas, Pee Wee Ellis (alto, tenor sax, arranging), John Turk (trumpet), the Oakland All-Stars, Earl "Good Rockin' Brown (alto sax), and Ron Thompson (guitar). My Story contains fine new tunes created in the classic blues style by t the veteran bluesman, such as "Tomorrow," "Real Love," "Arkansas," "Keep It Like It Is," In the Alley," "Join The Club," and "Just A Matter of Time."

McCracklin says the secret to his unique style is that he writes his own songs. He adds, "If you're looking for a secret, that's it. To me the most important part of a song is the words--not the beat. Words are what sells a record."

Jimmy McCracklin is a talented creative artist and blues great whose story is one of ongoing excellence, a unique style, and a wonderful story told marvelously well through song and performed in the finest blues tradition.

Taj Mahal
Phantom Blues