Barrellhouse Chuck And The All Star Blues Band
The Sirens Records SR-5104
©Cadence Magazine 2007 www.cadencebuilding.com (ph: 315-287-2852).
Floyd’s Blues / Call My Job / Got My Eyes On You / Mother Earth / Cleo’s Mood / School Days / The Bright Sounds Of Big Moose /
Just To Be With You / Big Town Playboy / Red River Rumba / Mama You Don’t Mean Me No Good / Iza Mae. 48:35.
Collective personnel: Barrelhouse Chuck, vcl, p, org; Eiko Izumi Gallwas, p; Kim Wilson, hca, bg vcl; Eddie Taylor, Jr., vcl, g, b; Joel Foy, g; Greg Rodriguez, mand, tba; Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, Frank Bandy, b; Willie “Big
Eyes” Smith, Kenny Smith, d. No dates or locations listed.
Chuck Goering, under the stage name
Barrelhouse Chuck, has been pounding the 88’s
as a profession now for more than a quarter of a
century. For his second Sirens issue (2) he
decided to record a batch of favorite covers by
such names as Floyd Jones, Detroit, Jr.,
Sunnyland Slim, Big Moose Walker, Muddy
Waters, Eddie Taylor, Little Brother Montgomery,
Smokey Smothers, and others. For this date
Chuck has assembled an A-list of players in the
likes of guitar slingers Eddie Taylor, Jr., and Joel
Foy, harpmaster Kim Wilson along with ex-
Muddy Waters members Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith for the bottom end. Aside
from adding vocals to Memphis Slim’s “Mother
Earth,” Wilson sticks to the harmonica here and
reaffirms my opinion of him as one of the most
under-appreciated practitioners of the instrument.
Wilson is featured on “Cleo’s Mood” as
well as two other instrumentals, “Floyd’s Blues”
and Joel Foy’s crackling “Red River Rumba,” and
takes an impressive ride on “School Days” (not
the Chuck Berry song). The leader plays a whole
bunch of idiomatic piano throughout, summoning
up echoes of Sunnyland Slim, Big Maceo,
Detroit, Jr., Otis Spann, and others. He switches
over to the organ for the title cut and a “Green
Onions”-like “The Bright Sounds Of Big Moose.”
After winding things down with a duet track
singing atop Elko Izumi-Gallwas’ Montgomery
influenced piano he turns in a short, acoustic,
instrumental trio reading of his own “Iza Mae.”
This no-frills session is easily recommended to
all true Bluesers.
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