Junior Wells - Junior's Wail - Singles As & BS 1953-1961 (2014)

Tracklist

01. Cut That Out
02. Eagle Rock
03. Hoodoo Man
04. Junior's Wail
05. Bout the Break of Day
06. Lord Lord (Lawdy ! Lawdy !)
07. Tomorrow Night
08. So All Alone
09. Two Headed Woman
10. Lovey Dovey Lovely One
11. I Could Cry
12. Cha Cha Cha in Blue
13. Little by Little
14. Come on in This House
15. You Don't Care
16. Prison Bars All Around Me
17. Galloping Horses and a Lazy Mule
18. Calling All Blues
19. Messin' with the Kid
20. Universal Rock
21. I'm a Stranger
22. The Things I Do for You
23. You Sure Look Good to Me
24. It Hurts Me Too
25. So Tired
26. Love Me
27. I Could Cry (Alternative Version)
28. I Need Me a Car

As a sub-genre of blues music, Chicago Blues is perhaps the most famous on a global level with many big name performers, and in the early 50s the teenager Junior Wells was on his way to being the Windy City's greatest harmonica player. This album features both sides of his 14 singles released between 1953 and 1961 making 28 tracks of prime Chicago Blues that is not to be missed!

"Wells arrived from Memphis fully formed -- but possessing a rawness that he would always maintain -- at the age of 18 as an energetic blues harp wizard and a vocalist with an intense and expressive borderline R&B style, schooled back in Memphis by his cousin, Little Junior "Mystery Train" Parker. It would be hard to name another 18-year-old in his rookie year of recording who ever put out a double-sided single as strong and as iconic as Wells's second one: "Hoodoo Man" (originally by Sonny Boy Williamson #1), which became one of his signature numbers, b/w his own original instrumental, "Junior's Wail," the title song of this collection. (Be careful when listening to the latter, as your jaw may hit the floor around the 0:54 mark.) As a measure of the respect Wells commanded while just a teenager, he was backed by luminaries such as Little Johnny Jones, the Myers Brothers, Elmore James (possibly), Odie Payne, Otis Spann, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon (these last three on his second session). Subsequently, names like Earl Hooker, Syl Johnson, Lafayette Leake, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, A.C. Reed and Fred Below come up.

This is the place to catch the first-recorded Wells versions of such classics (besides "Hoodoo Man") as "I Could Cry"; "Little by Little" (his 1960 breakout national R&B hit); his other signature song, "Messin' with the Kid" (the latter two penned for him -- he was "The Kid" -- by Mel London); and his 1961 take on Tampa Red's "It Hurts Me Too."

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