New Orleans Street Singer

by Snooks Eaglin

Overview

Ford "Snooks" Eaglin's first released recordings, the ones collected here, suggested to the world that Eaglin was a great lost country-blues player when he was, in fact, an excellent electric guitar player and a gospel-influenced singer who much preferred playing R&B with a band. When folklorist Harry Oster heard Eaglin busking with his guitar on a street in the French Quarter in 1958, he whisked him over to Louisiana State University and recorded the tracks collected here, either assuming that Eaglin was a folk artist, or possibly even asking him to portray one for the sake of the recording. Either way, New Orleans Street Singer was a revelation when it was released by Folkways Records a year later in 1959, presenting to the world a gifted guitar player and a naturally soulful singer who brought a kind of jazzy New Orleans feel and groove to the folk-blues standards he was covering. The album is no less a revelation in the 21st century in this expanded edition from Smithsonian Folkways, although hindsight allows us to realize that the folk stance was probably more Oster's preference than Eaglin's. The guitar work is quick and fluid, with lead bursts that surprise and delight, continually settling on unexpected but highly effective chordal resolves (the original instrumental "Sophisticated Blues" is a case in point), and the singing throughout is steady and informed, sounding a bit like Ray Charles, with tinges of both gospel and jazz phrasing. In Eaglin's hands traditional fare like "Saint James Infirmary," the near-ragtime "High Society," and the familiar "Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes" (a variant of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down") all become reborn and re-formed into definitive versions. The seven additional tracks expand the original album to around 70 minutes in length, and the alternate takes included of "Careless Love," "Driftin' Blues," and "The Lonesome Road" show that Eaglin didn't necessarily approach a song the same way twice in a row. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	08/30/2005
Label:	Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
UPC:	0093074016527
Rank:	71747

Tracks

1. Looking for a Woman
2. Walking Blues
3. Careless Love
4. Saint James Infirmary
5. High Society
6. I Got My Questionnaire
7. Let Me Go Home, Whiskey
8. Mama, Don't Tear My Clothes
9. Trouble in Mind
10. The Lonesome Road
11. Helping Hand (A Thousand Miles Away from Home)
12. One Room Country Shack
13. Who's Been Foolin' You
14. Drifting Blues
15. Sophisticated Blues
16. Come Back, Baby
17. Rock Island Line
18. See See Rider
19. One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
20. Mean Old World
21. Mean Old Frisco
22. Every Day I Have the Blues
23. Careless Love
24. Drifting Blues
25. The Lonesome Road

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Snooks Eaglin   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Soloist
Lucius Bridges   Guitar,Vocals
Percy Randolph   Washboard

Technical Credits

Harry Oster   Producer,Engineer,Photography
Rudy Toombs   Composer
Richard M. Jones   Composer
Karl Emil Knudsen   Reissue Producer,Release Production
Nathaniel Shilkret   Composer
Mercy Dee Walton   Composer
Memphis Slim   Composer
Armand Piron   Composer
Dave Bartholomew   Composer
Aaron Walker   Composer
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup   Composer
Snooks Eaglin   Composer
Clarence Williams   Composer
Charles Brown   Composer
Walter Davis   Composer
Chris Olesen   Artwork,Layout Design
Shifty Henry   Composer
Paul Oliver   Liner Notes
Jimmy McCracklin   Composer
Fats Domino   Composer
Eddie Williams   Composer
Gene Austin   Composer
Sam Hopkins   Composer