The great blues music collectors can count this 1969 debut Chess release within their collections. The album pushed a new artist who had broken into the R & B Top 5 with her 1966 single "Wang Dang Doodle". The song, which remains one of KoKo's many anthems, was released also as a part of this package. This effort was equally important in that it was produced by Willie Dixon and contained many of his own compositions, including the above, that equally came to become blues classics covered by blues artists to this day.
Taylor's voice here in recordings dating from 1965 to 1969 is much less seasoned than today's reflections, but it is vibrant, engaging, and meant to sing the blues. Her lay-down-the-law vocal attitude excites many of the tunes including the opener "Love You Like A Woman", "Don't Mess With The Messer", and "Twenty-Nine Ways (To My Baby's Door)". Her singing duet with Willie Dixon on "Insane Asylum" is a tortured tune that epitomizes classic blues material. This reissue provides two previously unreleased tunes that are also unknown gems to be cherished; "Love Sick Tears" and "He Always Knocks Me Out".
If you're not yet convinced that you need this CD, then here are some of the backing musicians that you will hear on this release: Guitarists Johnny 'Twist' Williams, Buddy Guy, Johnny Shines, or Matt Murphy; pianists Sunnyland Slim and Lafayette Leake; bassists Dixon and Jack Meyers; drummers Fred Below and Clifton James; harpman Walter 'Shakey' Horton; and saxists Donald Hankins and Gene Barge. This all-star collection of performers and songs can't be beat; get a real slice of Chicago in the 1960s on this reissue.
MCA, a division of Universal Music Group; 2220 Colorado Ave.; Santa Monica, CA 90404:
or, www.umusic.com
This review is copyright © 2001 by Mark A. Cole, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without written permission. For permission to use this review please send an E-mail to Ray Stiles.
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