Jim Brewer - Tough Luck (2005)

Tracklist

01. Kansas City Blues
02. Come Back Baby
03. Rock Me Mama
04. Goin' Away Baby
05. Big Road
06. Long Ways From Home
07. Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
08. Hair Like A Horse's Mane
09. Poor Kelly
10. Mean Old 'Frisco
11. Tough Luck Blues
12. Oak Top Boogie
13. Pea Vine Whistle


One of the last acoustic blues guitarists in Chicago, Jim Brewer was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi on October 3, 1920. The oldest of seven children (five boys and two girls), Brewer lost his sight at an early age. Brewer chose the guitar early as a means of survival. His father wanted him to play blues as the most likely means of earning a living, while his mother demanded he play only religious music. During the past 40 years, as a street singer in Chicago, he shifted constantly between the demon and the saint, playing gospel when weary of the blues’ wild street craziness; playing blues in club and festival performances.

While playing on the streets and in the stores of Brookhaven in the 1930s, he learned most of the religious songs that he continues to perform today. Brewer’s father, however, told him that people would pay more to hear the blues than to hear church music. As he grew older, Brewer started performing at play parties, playing blues he had learned from store records. Jim Brewer’s major influences include Big Bill Broonzy and Tommy Johnson. Other influences include Big Joe Williams, Big Maceo, Teddy Darby, Lonnie Johnson, and Tampa Red; musicians Brewer heard on records and radio in Chicago.

Jim Brewer is a powerful singer and guitarist; his style clearly conveying his roots in the Mississippi Delta blues. Today he plays an acoustic Martin six-string guitar. His music and performance style have, no doubt, gained an amount of polish over the years, and he seems comfortable playing to audiences who frequent the club and festival circuit. In addition to performing songs he learned from others over the years, Jim is also an accomplished songwriter and has been known to make up songs on the spot concerning his mood, the events of the day, or his immediate surroundings.

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