Roy Hawkins - The Thrill Is Gone (2002)

Tracklist

01. Wine Drinkin' Woman
02. Got My Dreams Under My Pillow
03. On My Way
04. Why Do Things Happen to Me
05. Where You Been?
06. Mean Little Girl
07. I Walk Alone
08. My Temper Is Risin'
09. Trouble Makin' Woman
10. Just a Poor Boy
11. Royal Hawk (Inst)
12. You're the Sweetest Thing
13. Mistreatin' Baby
14. You Had a Good Man
15. Hank's Shuffle (Inst)
16. I'm Never Satisfied
17. The Thrill Is Gone
18. Real Fine Woman
19. Gloom and Misery All Around
20. Albania
21. I Don't Know Just What to Do
22. You're a Free Little Girl
23. Trouble Makin' Woman (Alternate Take 1)
24. Blues All Around Me

Twenty-four of Hawkins' 1949-1952 Modern sides, mostly taken from singles that came out during those years. Even by the standards of the Modern roster, Hawkins is a fairly forgotten figure -- although he was, according to the liner notes, briefly the label's biggest moneymaker. As with all of Modern's early-'50s recordings, this has a dependable urban, slightly jazzy West Coast groove, very accomplished and not as variable as one might like over the course of a couple dozen numbers. Hawkins was a good piano player and a sufficient easygoing, slightly foggy-textured vocalist, capable of both rapid jump shuffles and morose ballads. "Gloom and Misery All Around" and "I Don't Know Just What to Do" were entirely typical sentiments of his slower tunes. His band featured an excellent underrated guitarist, Ulysses James, whose burning tone shines when it's given a little space to strut, as on "Wine Drinkin' Woman." His Modern output was most notable for the self-pitying ballad "Why Do Everything Happen to Me," a Number 3 hit later covered by B.B. King and James Brown, and, more memorably, the original version of "The Thrill Is Gone," which became B.B. King's biggest hit a couple of decades later. The original renditions of both are on this CD, and the gloomy "The Thrill Is Gone," far more piano-based and small band-scaled in its arrangement than King's classic cover, in particular outclasses anything else in Hawkins' discography. Otherwise, Hawkins is not among the first West Coast blues stars of the era, or even among the first such artists on the Modern roster, one should hear, though if you've a jones for that style, this reliably delivers the goods.

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