(Alive/Total Energy)
by Jon Sarre
They got blues in Detroit, just like they got ’em in the Delta and they got ’em in Chicago and they got ’em in goddamn Greenwich, Connecticut. It doesn’t matter that you’ve never heard of the people on this new compilation CD. With the exception of the venerable John Lee Hooker, Motor City blues people didn’t break out nationally, but they made records and played shows, even though most stayed in Detroit. Back in 1973, ex-MC5 manager John Sinclair, seeking to highlight some neglected local talent, co-organized the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. The music presented on Motor City Blues was recorded at that series of shows (and Sinclair’s liner notes provide some detailed background as to who these people are/were – some of the performers are no longer with us).
If there’s a problem with Detroit blues, at least judging from the stuff presented here, it has to do with the fact that it’s real hard to escape “sounds like” comparisons to better-known artists. Joe L. Carter‘s “Please Mr. Foreman,” for one, could be mistaken for an Albert King song. Then there’s Mr. Bo, who, to quote the original program for the Festival, “works unashamedly in the style of B.B. King.” Yup, he does. Bobo Jenkins, Big Boy Warren, Eddie Burns, and Little Junior also fall into familiar, damn-near generic “blues” ruts. You almost stop wondering why the Motor City isn’t known for its blues.
A one-man band named Dr. Ross, on the other hand, makes you sit up and pay attention with his primitive chugging delta-type stuff. Blues-talker and “unitar” (a one-string homemade instrument) player One-String Sam is likewise original, almost to the point of being weird (Sinclair regards his early ’50s JVB recording of “I Need $100” as a lost classic, and the live version here ain’t no slouch, either). Other standouts are Boogie Woogie Red‘s creepy, throaty mumbles over jaunty piano on Fats Waller’s “The Viper Song” and Washboard Willie‘s Jamaican-flavored re-write of “Hey, Little School Girl” (“Wee Baby Blues”). Also worth mention are Eddie Kirkland‘s two impassioned cuts, “Mojo in Her Backbone” and “I Got the Blues.” His bombastic rock-like performance suggests that ’70s rock excess (long solos, longer songs, symphony-length jams) was already old hat to him and that certain members of the MC5 may have been schooled on Kirkland back in ’67. If so, does that qualify him for punk rock deity status? Somebody ask Wayne Kramer.
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