The end of the period covered on the second installment of this Excello retrospective saw the label start to record the Louisiana swamp blues artists for whom it is most famed: Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Lightnin' Slim, Lonesome Sundown. While each of those artists is represented here by a cut or two (including Harpo's classic "I'm a King Bee"), much of it's devoted to more urban, mid-'50s blues/R&B crossover, most of it recorded in Nashville. A couple of these were big hits: the Marigolds' "Rollin' Stone" made the R&B Top ...
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The end of the period covered on the second installment of this Excello retrospective saw the label start to record the Louisiana swamp blues artists for whom it is most famed: Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Lightnin' Slim, Lonesome Sundown. While each of those artists is represented here by a cut or two (including Harpo's classic "I'm a King Bee"), much of it's devoted to more urban, mid-'50s blues/R&B crossover, most of it recorded in Nashville. A couple of these were big hits: the Marigolds' "Rollin' Stone" made the R&B Top Ten in 1955 (and was covered for a pop hit by the Fontane Sisters), while Louis Brooks made number two R&B that same year with "It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)" (covered with success by Ruth Brown). Jerry McCain does raw, early electric blues with "Courtin' in a Cadillac; " Guitar Gable does blues with a Mardi Gras rhythm on "Congo Mambo"; a young Johnny Copeland plays "chicken licking" guitar on Clarence Samuels' "Chicken Hearted Woman," and there are a couple of lowdown blues by Little Al (Arthur Gunter's brother). There's also some rockabilly by Johnny Jano, whose "Havin' a Whole Lot of Fun" is attractively over the top, and Al Ferrier, whose "Hey! Baby" is a transparent derivation of "Baby Let's Play House." Like volume one of this fine series, it's a good collection of a variety of sounds on the cusp of becoming rock & roll, though by this point the line was sometimes being crossed into bona fide early rock. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
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Add this copy of The Excello Story, Volume 2: 1955-1957 to cart. $64.50, new condition, Sold by SellingTales rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Belvidere, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Hip-O Records.
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