LEON RUSSELL:Hank Wilson's Back, Vol. I. charged lead at the end ofIncident on 57th Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery (piano (vocals, piano); Harold Bradley Streetand see what I mean - you'd have to go and vocals):instrumental accompaniment. (bass ); J. J. Cale (electric guitar); Char- to Robin Trower for comparable intensity). Drivin'Wheel; Setthe Meat Outdoors; lie McCoy (harmonica); (guitar); There's a good deal more overdubbing here, Hangover; Santa Fe; No Special Rider; Tut Taylor (dobro); Bob Moore (bass); other too. The added instrumental density is beauti- Vicksburg ;and eighteen others. FAN- musicians. Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms; fully handled; the textures overall are still TASY 24717 two discs $6.98. ; I'm So Lonesome I reminiscent of "Highway 61," but they go Could Cry; Sail My Ship Alone;and nine light years beyond it, into something I can Performance:Urban, but not urbane others. SHELTER SW -8923 $5.98, 8XW- only describe as the Coasters on Abbey Recording:Good Van Gelder 8923 $6.98, © 4XW-8923 $6.98. Road. The new songs are all superb. Side one During the late Fifties and early Sixties, when Performance: Rugged to ragged is (consciously, Ithink) a warmup, yet it's many a bogus folk singer reaped success and Recording: Very good marvelous, especiallySandy. wealth from a revival of "ethnic" music, inter- But side two is positively epochal; it's been est inevitably turned to its authentic survi- Leon Russell singing country standards is not giving me goosebumps for weeks now. It's a vors. Consequently, countless blues perform- exactly an idea to conjure with, but Leon sort of suite, a homage to New York City,ers whose names were imprinted on time- whipping a typically (for Leon) oversized and no one in recent years has so accurately worn race -record labels of the Twenties and collection of musicians through their intricate- captured the city's violence and poetry.Inci- Thirties were "rediscovered" and, in most ly interrelated paces is a qualified good deal. dent on 57th Street,the opener, may be a cases, exploited. In the slower and mellower songs, such asShe masterpiece. Without using much more than RooseveltSykesandEurreal"Little Thinks I Still Care,Russell's own vocal is an the chords toLa Bamba(like so many great Brother" Montgomery were among the few unacceptable distraction;it'stoo harsh to who did not sound like living relics of a by- start with, and it tends to wanderpainfullyoff gone era, although that is for the most part key. The up -tempo pieces zing right along, how they were presented to the public. In though, with some particularly fine licks gen- fact, they were only forty-seven and fifty-four, erated by electric guitarists J. J. Cale and respectively, when they made these record- ('s old buddy) , steel ings in 1960, and their work here is that of guitarist Curley Chalker (least famous and mature artists steeped in a tradition they best of the three heard here), rhythm guitarist helped to create- a tradition that never made , and, naturally, the ubiquitous them rich, but one that now is the canvas Charlie McCoy on harp. The one slow one upon which successful soul artists paint.It that really cooks isGoodnight Irene,with one would be hard to make a choice between of the most integrated, least self-conscious Montgomery and Sykes, for they are actually vocals Leon has ever managed. What's ex- a matched pair; each has his own style, mak- traordinary is how they can keep me so en- ing up in spirit for what he lacks in technique; grossed all the way through such a familiar, each gives as good a performance here as he old -shoe sort of ditty. ever has, which is to say that both of them There are, of course, places where this rec- play forcefully and put a great deal of feeling ord couldn't engross me if it held a shotgun on into their homespun lyrics. me, but it does establish that Russell has some When these albums first appeared, sepa- country -music sensibilities and that some rately, on the Prestige/Bluesville label thir- songs, played well, never wear out. N.C. teen years ago, they were but drops in a very large bucket of blues revival sessions. Time PETER SCHICKELE:The Intimate P.D.Q. has now drained away much of that deluge, Bach(see Classical Discs and Tapes, page 107) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN giving us a much clearer look at what remains. Laying Zimmerman's Ghost to rest Sykes and Montgomery sound even better the SIR DOUGLAS BAND:Texas Tornado(see second time around. C.A. Best of the Month, page 80) rocksongs-notably Like a ),it conveys more atmosphere, more of the aching T-BONE WALKER:I Want a Little Girl. romanticism of the New York streetcorner Aaron "T -Bone" Walker (guitar, piano, vo- RECORDING OF SPECIALMERIT rock ethos, than anything I can remember in cals); Hal Singer (tenor ); rhythm BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: The Wild, the Inno- years. More, it has one of the all-time great section.Late Hours Blues; I Hate to See You cent, and the E Street Shuffle.Bruce Spring- sing -along fade-out choruses. Then there's Go; Ain't This Cold, Baby;and five others. steen (vocals and ); Gan -yTallent Rosalita,an incredible mishmash of every- DELMARK tOS 633 $5.98. (bass): Clarence Clemons (saxes); David thing from Jay and the Americans to the Sancious (keyboards); Danny Federici (ac- Byrds, which plays with musical and lyrical Performance:Choice cuts cordion); Vini Lopez (drums).The E Street chestnuts in a dizzying way. The haunting Recording:Good Shuffle; 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy); New York City Serenadeends with an ode to T -Bone Walker is perhaps best known as the Kitty's Back; Wild Billy's Circus Story; Inci- a singing junkman, which may be at once the composer ofStormy Monday Blues,a tune he dent on 57th Street; Rosalita (Come Out To- silliest and most magnificent image any rocker confesses he did not write. But he should be night); New York City Serenade.COLUMBIA has ever concocted. far better known for his work as a performer, KC 32432 $5.98, OO CA 32432 $6.98. I realize that I have made this album out to for he is an excellent singer and he plays su- Performance:Sensational be the greatest thing since indoor plumbing perb single -string guitar. Recording:Excellent (orthe Two -Thousand -and -Thirteen -Year - Blues enthusiasts are, of course, familiar Old Man's beloved liquid Prell) but you're with Walker's work over the years-he once Iam pleased to report that, despite Colum- just going to have to trust me on this one. accompanied Ma Rainey -but, despite recent bia's monumentally ill-advised "New Dylan" Springsteen impresses me more and more as attempts to commercialize his recordings, he hype, Bruce Springsteen has come up with a themajor American figure of the decade. He has not been able to achieve any sort of mass sensational follow-up to his "Greetings from and his superb band have seemingly digested audience recognition. Still, there are now sev- Asbury Park, NJ." In fact, not the least of the every important strain of urban rock-and-roll en T -Bone Walker albums on four different pleasures of "The Wild, the Innocent, and the of the last twenty years, emerging with a labels in the catalog, sosomebodymust be E Street Shuffle" is that with it he has perma- uniquely powerful and personal vision. If the interested. nentlylaidZimmerman's Ghost torest. Hibbing Minstrel's new album with This album, made in Paris for a French la- Clearly, we are dealing here with a highly in- has even half of the fresh energy demon- bel five years ago, is straightforward and ad- dividualauteur,and, I might add, the first big strated here, we are going to be in for an ex- mirable. With a typical r -&-b backing of tenor, American rock talent since John Fogerty. tremely exciting 1974. Steve Simels bass, and drums, Walker sails through a reper- Good as the debut set was, this new one is a toire of blues and such mainstream standards staggering advance. Bruce is playingelectric asI Want a Little GirlandGee Baby, Ain't / guitar now (there was very little on "Greet- RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT Good to You,performing with a youthful spir- ings"), and he's superb, both as a rhythm ROOSEVELT SYKES/LITTLEBROTHER it lyrics that are never as interesting as his de - player and as a soloist (check out his highly MONTGOMERY: Urban Blues.Roosevelt (Continued on page 96) 92 STEREO REVIEW