Blues — All Formats  

A bit of soul, a bit of blues, and a rock-solid sound that's outta sight all the way through! Clay Hammond is a hell of a southern soul singer – one with a range that's sometimes as great as Bobby Blue Bland, and a sweetness that almost echoes an earlier generation of Sam Cooke – while still taking things into some nice deeper soul territory too! The backings here are often nice and tight – never overly polished, but with a focus that really suits Clay's great vocals – and really sets him apart from some of the other singers of this nature at the time. CD features a whopping 25 tracks in all – and titles include "The Good Side Of My Girl", "Take Your Time", "My Jealous Girl", "I'll Make Up To You", "You Messed Up My Mind", "I Got A Letter This Morning", "Ain't That The Way", "Suzy Do It Better Than You", and "You Threw Out Your Lifeline".

R&B, gritty blues, and some killer tenor talents – a wicked collection of vintage masters from legendary indie United Records! Musically, the package is very much on a par with Ace/Kent collections of this type – the sort that might feature material from King or Modern/RPM Records from the same vintage – and our hat's off to Delmark for doing such a great job of bringing back these crucially overlooked sounds from Chicago! Titles include "Cool Leo" by Leo Parker", "Cut That Out (alt)" by Junior Wells, "Organ Grinder" by Jimmy Coe, "Walking Home" by JT Brown, "Let's Get High" by Morris Pejoe, "Crazy Walk" by Tab Smith, "In The Dark" by Grant Jones, "Nona" by Paul Bascomb, "Goodbye" by The Pastels, "Tiny's Boogie" by Tiny Grimes, "Sophisticated Lady (alt)" by Jimmy Forrest, and "Come In The Room" by Robert Anderson.

The heavy bag here is a bluesy one – as Lowell Fullsom's working in territory that's got a lot of rootsy, almost southern blues in the mix – but which still cracks out at times with his hipper, more funk-tuned groove! There's a few tracks on here that hearken towards the "Tramp" groove from his Kent years – like "Lady In The Rain" and "Sleeper" – both of which have a nicely funky undercurrent and vamping guitar that really snaps along with the rhythm. Other numbers have a straighter blues feel, but one that still has a sinister approach that goes way past cliches for the college crowd – showing Lowell to be firmly in charge, no matter what the setting. Tracks include "Sleeper", "Lady In The Rain", "Man Of Motion", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road", "Look At You Baby", "Trouble Everywhere", and "This Feeling". CD features 3 bonus tracks – "Stoned To The Bone", "Every Second A Fool Is Born", and "Lonesome Christmas".