Gordon Smith

Gordon Smith - The Essential Gordon Smith


Blues | MP3 VBR V0 ~254 Kbps | 111 Mb | 2009

Quote:
This superb pure Blues album is a compilation of fifteen tracks performed by Gordon Smith, an artist whose name is unfortunately not as yet very well known. And what a shame it is! Here we have somebody who plays an authentic Blues with roots running deep in the Delta. There is a subtle mix of covers with Gordon’s own compositions. Indeed Gordon Smith’s songs could just as well have been written in the middle of the night, after a long and tough day picking cotton. You could be forgiven for thinking that ‘Ladybird’ had been written by the author of ‘One Dime’ (a Blind Lemon Jefferson creation) when, in fact, it is 100% Gordon Smith. I bet you’re impressed! And I must mention the brilliant English harmonica maestro, Alan Glen who is so present in this great album. In fact, Gordon Smith has invited some big names to join him: Alan Glen on harmonica and guitar, West Weston on piano and harmonica, Bob Haddrell on keyboards, Bernie Pallo on accordion, John O’Reilly on the six-string, the excellent Dino Coccia on drums and no less than 4 bass guitar players! I told you you’d be impressed, didn’t I?

And what about the covers? Well, Gordon Smith and his guests put on quite a show with huge songs like ‘She Moves Me’ (Muddy Waters), the classic ‘Careless Love’, ‘Slow Drag ‘ by Reverend Gary Davis or ‘Walkin’ Blues’ by Robert Johnson, combined to ‘Coming Home’ by Clifton Chenier and ‘Hungry Man’ written by Alan Glen. You’ll know by now that this is not only an excellent Blues album but it is also an amazing compilation of great historic Blues songs beautifully performed. An unmissable album!


Tracklist:

01. Kidman Blues
02. One Dime
03. She Moves Me
04. Take A Little Walk With Me
05. Careless Love
06. Coming Home
07. Rev-Ing Up
08. Hungry Man
09. Tomorrow Night
10. Ladybird
11. Hey Renee
12. Mean Mistreatin' Mama
13. Slow Rag
14. Talkin' Woman Blues
15. Walkin' Blues




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Gordon Smith - Complete Blue Horizon Sessions


Acoustic Blues | MP3 320 Kbps | 177 Mb | 1968/2008
All covers included


Review by Mark Barry:
Once in a very blue moon, a CD comes along that grabs you by the Short and Murphys and blows your tiny gin-sozzled mind.
Gordon Smith's "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" is that album...

Here's the layout first (76:07 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 14 are his lone album "Long Overdue" issued on the cult UK label Blue Horizon Records S 7-63211 in March 1969. It's an incredibly hard-to-find acoustic blues rarity clocking in at over £100 - if you can actually locate one. It reputedly sold over 4000 copies on release, but in the near 20 years that I've been dealing with rare records, I've never actually seen one! So it's reissue in September 2008 is welcome and a huge plus for blues fans everywhere.

Tracks 15 through to 25 and 28 are all previously unreleased; they're alternate takes, acoustic and electric versions, mono mixes. Some were from his aborted 2nd album; all are made available here for the first time anywhere and are uniformly superb. All are studio quality finished versions.

Tracks 26 and 27 are "Too Long" and "Funk Pedal", his lone 7" single on Blue Horizon Records 57-3156 issued in July 1969 (both are non-album tracks) and again the single is impossibly rare - itself upwards to £20 to find a mint copy in it's distinctive Blue Horizon label bag.

The original analogue master tapes have been used, mastered by SEAN LYNCH at Torch Music - the sound is SUPERB - clear, warm and punchy. There is hiss on some of the quieter tracks like "Instrumental No. 4" but it's not enough to detract.

The detailed 12-page booklet has a really informative and enthusiastic essay by the label founder MIKE VERNON, which stylishly mixes the personal with the factual - making for a really great read. There's promo photos from the BH archives of Gordon with his guitar, with his touring band, the 7" single and label bag is pictured as well - as is the front of the very rare album sleeve. There's a concert poster showing that he supported Muddy Waters on tour in the UK and a very detailed track-by-track session breakdown. All of it is contained by a card wrap on the outside - which gives the release a classy and eventful look.

Several tracks contain guests: the opener, a cover of Sleepy John Estes' "Diving Duck Blues" has PETER GREEN on Harmonica (he plays a blinder) while PETER HALL adds lovely rolling piano blues to the instrumental "Having A Good Time". Another label mate DUSTER BENNETT compliments Smith's stunning acoustic blues with his Harmonica work on the Robert Johnson cover of "Walking Blues". Fans of that early FLEETWOOD MAC sound will flip for Smith's version of J.B. Lenoir's "I've Been Down So Long" which has both JOHN McVIE and MICK FLEETWOOD on it. Their rhythm section work perfectly compliments this really cool blues shuffle.

However, the album mostly highlights the beautifully deft guitar work of the 20-year old lad from Tyne & Wear. Many tracks are guitar and vocals only. It sounds like Robert Johnson transported from the 30's to the 60's and 5 of the tunes are his own compositions - pretty impressive stuff really. His voice sounds a little like Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac, but it's his guitar playing that impresses most - especially on the acoustic guitar with a bottleneck squeaking up and down the frets. If you want a good taster of what to expect - try to access the Traditional Blues air of "Pearlie Blues" if possible - wonderfully evocative of the Delta that has so obviously entranced him -body and soul.

I love acoustic blues - especially a really good string bender. And what you get here is a cracking great album full of it - a wad of tasty outtakes that you'll play again rather than just listen to once and leave there - and all of it wrapped up in Grade A packaging. Brill!


Tracklist:

01. Diving Duck Blues
02. Highway 51
03. One Dime Blues
04. Having A Good Time
05. Instrumental No 2
06. Walking Blues
07. Rolling And Tumbling
08. I Been Down So Long
09. Instrumental No 4
10. Pearlie Blues
11. Woman Down The Hall
12. Big Road Blues
13. Instrumental No 3
14. Worried Life Blues
15. Nobody's Fault But Mine
16. One Dime Blues
17. Instrumental No 2
18. Walking Blues
19. Rolling And Tumbling
20. Walking Blues
21. Pearlie Blues
22. I'm So Glad
23. Instrumental No 1
24. When You Got A Good Friend
25. I'm So Glad
26. Too Long
27. Funk Pedal
28. I'm Sitting On Top Of The World

Notes: 2008 digitally remastered collection of recordings for the British Blues label Blue Horizon including 12 previously unreleased tracks.




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