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Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #62 Mar-Apr 2006

Big Mama Thornton

In Europe (Arhoolie)

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By recommending Big Mama Thornton for the American Folk Blues festival that toured Europe in 1965, Chris Strachwitz got the opportunity to tag along and to record her for his Arhoolie label for the first time. Thornton was in peak form, and it’s no wonder, considering that the studio band consisted of Buddy Guy, Eddie Boyd, Fred Below and Jimmy Lee Robinson. Her “Little Red Rooster” is as fine a rendition as one is likely to hear, and the five previously unreleased tracks include an alternate take of her “Hound Dog” hit. Fred McDowell, who was also brought over for the festival, accompanies the singer on three atypical country blues numbers. Thornton, who also plays harmonica or drums on several tracks, was arguably the most influential of several authentic blues women still active in the ’60s. The material on this reissue, which closes with a fifteen-minute interview with the singer, is nearly as essential as her classic Peacock sides from the ’50s.

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Originally Featured in Issue #62 Mar-Apr 2006

Cover of Issue #62 Mar-Apr 2006

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More articles from this issue:

  • Calexico

    Calexico - Come together • I am part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. --Alfred Lord T…

  • Jackie Greene

    Jackie Greene - Untangled up in songs • Journalists writing about Jackie Greene generally fixate on three main topics: his youth, his uncanny similarities to Bob Dylan, and the perceived bluesiness of his music. While i…

  • Alecia Nugent

    Alecia Nugent - Pain in the grass • Since the release of her self-titled Rounder debut in 2004, Alecia Nugent's pretty much heard it all -- the bluegrass "rules" that insist an artist is supposed to play an instrume…

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