MEMPHIS SLIM: Rockin’ The House: The Best Of The R&B Years Fantastic Voyage FVDD151 (Two CDs: 69:00; 71:00)

CD One: Mistake In Life/ Slim’s Boogie/ Cheatin’ Around/ Rockin’ The House/ Lend Me Your Love/ Harlem Bound/ Nobody Loves Me (Every Day I Have The )/ Throw This Poor Dog A Bone/ Help Me Some/ Blue And Lonesome [1949]/ Angel Child/ Messin’ Around/ Frisco Bay/ If You Live That Life/ Grinder Man Blues/ The Girl I Love/ Slim’s Blues/ I Guess I’m A Fool/ Really Got The Blues/ Mother Earth/ Train Is Comin’/ No Mail Blues/ Gonna Need My Help Some Day/ Sittin’ And Thinkin’/ Living Like A King CD Two: Only A Fool Has Fun/ Living The Life I Love/ The Come Back [1953]/ Wish Me Well/ Little Peace Of Mind/ Got To Find My Baby/ Four Years Of Torment/ Sassy Mae/ Blue And Lonesome [1956]/ Memphis Slim USA/ Treat Me Like I Treat You/ Worried Life Blues/ This Time I’m Through/ Stroll On Little Girl/ Boogie Woogie Memphis/ Rollin’ And Tumblin’/ How Long/ The Comeback [1960]/ My Gal Keeps Me Crying/ Steppin’ Out/ Lonesome (Blue Blues)/ Cold Blooded Woman/ Four Walls/ Big Bertha/ I’ll Keep On Singing The Blues

This generous release offers fifty tracks covering this great artist’s work from the end of World War ll through to the beginning of the 1960s. Earlier (pre-war) he had made great piano blues for Okeh and Victor, and later he would enjoy a long and varied career in the folk and blues revival, both in the US and Europe (he would settle in ), but during this in-between period he was pushing the envelope of blues and r&b with small combos where his piano was complemented by powerful little horn sections, and later by the lead guitar of the brilliant Matt Murphy. If Slim’s reputation still needs to be rescued from those later years when some complained that he was ‘over-recorded’, listening to his work from this period should do it, if anything will.

The first disc covers the years from 1946 to early 1952, with tracks deriving from a range of indie labels of the day, from the tiny and obscure Melody Lane Record Shop through to the much bigger and better known Peacock. Quite simply, it’s track after track of powerful blues. Even by the end of the first two tracks, he’s already proved he was a great, great blues singer – listen to the soul he pours into ’ ‘Mistake In Life’ – while the potent rolling thunder of ‘Slim’s Boogie’ offers conclusive proof of his outstanding abilities at the piano. His songwriting and arranging gifts are clearly on display in tracks like ‘Living The Life I Love’ and ‘Mother Earth’, and many more.

The second disc picks up the story when Slim arrived at United Records, with his new guitar player, Matt Murphy, and takes us through the Vee-Jay years, to 1961. Along the way, it sidesteps into the folkie context with three excellent tracks from a Carnegie Hall concert with Muddy Waters on guitar, originally issued on a United Artists entitled ‘ Presents Folk Song Festival’. This is a bit more rare and obscure than the United and Vee-Jay material, so it’s a nice treat, and ‘Rollin’ And Tumblin’’ is just beautiful. Then it’s all rounded off with five tracks from Slim’s great Strand album and his full band. Murphy features all through this second disc (apart from the Carnegie Hall tracks), and what a vital part he was of Slim’s sound – filling in with big rich chords, or soloing as excitingly as any lead guitarist of the time. From his dazzling lead passages in ‘Wish Me Well’ to his driving contribution to ‘Lonesome’, Murphy gives ample evidence of his prodigious talent, and shows how he was a lot more influential than he’s given credit for. And that’s just a bonus – Memphis Slim himself is reason enough to acquire this great music.

Ray Templeton