Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - Mean Ol' Frisco FLAC

★★★★★★ In 1962 Crudup recorded for Bobby Robinson's Fire label, that also had Elmore James recording. Previously both artists had only done 2- or 4-track sessions released on 78 RPM's, but with Robinson both artists did lengthier sessions resulting in two great albums in 1960 and 1962 respectively. These two Fire albums represent the best recorded work of the two artists. Crudup originally wrote and released the classics "That's Allright (Mama)" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" (1950) and the lesser known "So Glad You're Mine" (1946) all three of them giving young Elvis Presley defining material, style and sound for his initial recordings. Though a Mississippi delta blues man, Crudup's sound style is more in the uptempo jump blues style that Jimmy Reed would later rework again and again. Crudup recorded his first work for the Victor label in 1942 and recorded frequently until 1952 when he unsatisfied with his small wages and disputes over royalties turned his back to his record making career. The following decade until his 1962 Fire label recordings saw no decrease in his talent as a musician but certainly those years saw a great improvement in the quality of recorded sound. On "Mean ol' Frisco" Crudup backs himself on bass and drums in perfect re-recordings of his classic songs. This is without doubt the best recorded work of Crudup, and the sound is even surprisingly well made for 1962. The Charly record for which I posted this review is not exactly the original Fire album from which the cover has been duplicated but a compilation with most of the album tracks plus extra tracks recorded at the same Fire session. As all the material is equally strong I give both the original album and this re-release/compilation the maximum of 6 stars. One of the best blues albums ever.

There is a separate page in db for R&B (Blues/Soul) Charly-Records-issues called „Charly R&B“. All records in my collection with Catalog-Nrs. starting with „CRB 1xxx definitively are issues of this „Charly R&B“-sublabel. Please check if your submission should better be listed there.

-