CD Review
"Got My Eyes On You"
Barrellhouse Chuck And The All Star Blues Band
The Sirens Records SR-5104
Larry Hollis, Cadence February 2007

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 ‘Got My Eyes On You’ 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 down with a duet track singing atop Eiko 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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