LABOR RECORDS RELEASES THE 2ND ALBUM FROM THE NOTED SONGWRITER/LYRICIST KENT COOPER
A SUPERB COLLECTION FEATURING NEW MATERIAL BY RISING STARS DENEEN McEACHERN AND JEMIMA JAMES; ALSO REMARKABLE RECORDINGS BY LOUISIANA RED, SONNY TERRY, GEORGE HIGGS, SUGAR BLUE, LIGHTNIN' WELLES, MARK GALBO AND JOHNNY SHINES
Liner notes by Grammy Award winning author ROB BOWMAN
Labor Records has announced a second release of collected songs by songwriter/ lyricist Kent Cooper, entitled: "Vol. 2 The Blues and Other Songs." Eleven of the sixteen tracks are new, never before released material, which embody the range of this prolific lyricist.
A powerful new blues singer, Deneen McEachern, opens the set with "Hard Dark Love,' about a passionate attachment above any need for formalized marriage contracts. "McEachern deploys her full bodied larger-than-life voice in a forceful and gripping interpretation of 'Black Sky El'" (Rob Bowman), evoking a snowy night on Chicago's bleak Southside, where her man "has lost his way." Deneen's "Lover's Lament," comes from a woman who cannot bring herself to bury her lover: "They got them tombstones far as the eye can see, it's jus not the place my baby needs to be."
George Higgs, winner of Living Blues' Country Album of the year award in 2002, and Jemima James, the great Boston area singer, join forces on "Walk All Over Georgia," a plaintive ode to love unknowingly crushed. It is apparent that Higgs and James have forged an instant classic in this number. Ms. James, whose ample voice has been described as "full throated and deep in the chest when she lets loose," gives a touching performance in "Tracking Through the Snow," a song that captures what Cooper has referred to as the isolation that too many women must endure and, hopefully, overcome. Ms. James' version of "Emergency Call," is the frantic bemoaning of a woman struck with the realization that she's lost her lover and needs a fast retreat--back to her dead mother if necessary.
Sonny Terry sings the wildly lamenting song "Selling Out," while Louisiana Red, aided and abetted by the fabulous Lefty Dizz, kicks up a storm on "Going Train Blues." (You can actually see and hear the train smoking down the hard steel highway.) Red is joined by Sugar Blue and Johnny Shines on "Red Sun," the story of a man waiting for a miracle to break him out of prison, so he can have "one more good drunk in town". Red has never sounded better nor been more impressive, as on the tracks "Held Up In One Town" and "When My Mama was Living". The guitar wizard was at the top of his game when he cut these recordings, his voice a real standout in the pantheon of the blues. Cooper has said, "Few singers can get as much anguish into their voice as Louisiana Red. The way he sings 'When My Mama was Living', you know the woman is sorely missed. You feel it yourself."
Backed by the Cold Wind Band, George Higgs' two numbers will garner this vintage singer an even greater audience. Higgs is the real thing, a man who has worked all his life at manual labor, and, until later years, played his music mostly for solace and for neighborhood friends. The richness and depth of Higgs' feelings are fully evident in the songs "The Unloving Kind" and "Somebody Tell Somebody".
Cooper's songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Eric Burdon of the Animals and Peg Leg Sam, the hobo harmonica sage. Cooper lived in the East Village in the Sixties and Seventies and was friends with most of the blues luminaries of the day, which included Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, John Lee Hooker (for whom he wrote the obituary for the Heritage Blues Society), Muddy Waters, Lonnie Johnson, Arthur Crudup, Johnny Shines, Roosevelt Sykes and a host of others. He is the author of a book on Sonny Terry and of the blues musicals "Deathwatch" and "Standing At Your Door," the latter of which starred Guy Davis in the l998 production
"A tale of marital woe so harrowing it makes the bardic sophistry of the Geto Boys or Ghostface Killan seem tame by comparison. It's a jaw dropper."
-Spin Magazine (about Cooper's seminal blues classic "Sweet Blood Call")
REVIEW / Dirty Linen
Another star studded showcase for Cooper's sharp, blues based lyrics. Favorites include three featuring George Higgs and four with Luisiana Red and guest guitarists Lefty Dizz and Johnny Shines and harmonicat Sugar Blue. Perfromances by Sonny Terry, Lightnin' Welles, Marc Galbo and Deneen McEachern also delight. Last years's first volume is just as convincing and includes many of the same interpreters.
-GvonT / Dirty Linen
REVIEW / Independent Weekly, Durham, NC
The Blues & Other Songs Vol.1 and 2
Kent Cooper is a man with a bad case of the blues. And while he obviously feels 'em, he's content to write and let others do justice to the tunes. Cooper picks his representatives carefully. Some are big name friends, like Sonny Terry, who Cooper befriended when he moved in next door to the bluesman soon after relocating to New York City from his native Durham. That friendship led to Cooper meeting and writing for some of the biggest names in the blues, including John Lee Hooker and Louisiana Red, who Cooper managed for a time.
Cooper explores earthly delights with Red's help on "Held Up In One Town:"
"Good God, woman, can't you keep your sweet dress down," Red moans, "cause the wind is blowin' and I can't seem to leave this town."
Sonny Terry, on the other hand, has no problem getting out of town on "Sellin' Out:"
"I'm leavin' out-put my house up for sale/I'm gonna dig up all my bushes, I'm gonna cancel out all my mail," Terry decrees after his woman tells him she's been untrue.
Not all the Cooper tune carriers are household names-yet, Deneen McEachern is at the top of the list, with a delivery worthy of Big Mama Thornton on "Hard Dark Love" and a performance that sounds like Tracy Nelson on "Lover's Lament." Jemima James' sound is more country, full of pain and heartache on "Emergency Call." Her duet with McEachern on "Dog Following Me" is chilling-the two women's voices are so disparate it's like mixing Emmylou Harris with Mavis Staples.
Locals George Higgs and Lightnin' Welles make appearances as well. Welles trots out his banjo for "If She's Gone Bad," a plaintive ditty about a backwoods runaround Sue, while Higgs shows off the form that won him an N.C. Folk Heritage Award on "Somebody Tell Somebody" and "The Unloving Kind."
Cooper's attention to detail, both as a writer and a chooser of talent, makes his blues easy to wake up with.
-Grant Britt / Independent Weekly
REVIEW / Blues in Britain
Volume 2 of 'The Blues & Other Songs' continues where Volume 1 finished, with a selection of hugely talented artists, some well known - others not so, performing the songs of Kent Cooper, a tunesmith and lyricist whose vision of the blues is delivered with insightful and stark imagery.
As with Volume 1, the blues that make up this set are culled over a thirty year period, beginning with 'Going Train Blues' (1974), a churning shuffle from Louisiana Red and Lefty Dizz, replete with wild and uncompromising slide from Lefty underpinning Red's deep and raw blues vocals; culminating with two wonderful tracks from George Higgs (2003), 'The Unloving Kind' and 'Somebody Tell Somebody', two beautiful earthy country blues with Higgs' 'world weary' vocals underpinned by Sandy Darity's wailing harp and great slide from Chris Berry. The lyrics to 'Unloving ...' are an apt demonstration of Cooper's craft as Higgs bemoans the fact that "cold hands ain't nothing to hold on / she's got the beauty of a queen but she's cold as ice."
One of the greatest pleasures of this series is the discovery of Deneen McEachern, a wonderful talent who delivers three stunning tracks as well as duetting with Jemima James on 'Dog Following Me'. McEachern has a voice that erupts with a brooding intensity, 'Hard Dark Love', a country blues that is almost a field holler before it segues into a deeply impassioned blues with plaintive harp (Darity) and 'down in the alley' piano (Tom Latimer); 'Lover's Lament' is permeated with deep and effecting gospel inflections, whilst 'Black Sky El' is a gloomy blues with menacing vocals that are echoed by rumbling piano and moaning harp. The duet with James is a country blues with a spiritual feel, permeated with shades of Terry and McGhee, and given layered textures due to the contrast in vocal styles between McEachern's earthy and James' haunting approach. Jemima James also delivers two affecting performances; 'Tracking Through the Snow' a poignant folk blues with sympathetic harp and piano, whilst 'Emergency Call' has a 40s Memphis Minnie feel, James' guitar eliciting a natural swing that is echoed by Tom Latimer's rolling piano.
A prime slab of Sonny Terry ('Selling Out'), with it's country harp and urban guitar; a wonderful duet featuring the appealing contrasts between the husky vocals of James, and Higgs plaintive lament ('Walk All Over Georgia'); and some vintage Louisiana Red including the Muddy styled 'Red Sun' with wonderful accompaniment from Johnny Shines and Sugar Blue, and the plaintive 'When My Mama Was Living'; are further delights on this highly recommended set. (www.laborrecords.com)
Rating 9 / 9
-Mick Rainsford / Blues in Britain
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http://laborrecords.comTrack List:
1. Hard Dark Love (Deneen McEachern)
2. The Unloving Kind (George Higgs)
3. Going Train Blues (Louisiana Red / Lefty Dizz)
4. Black Sky El (Deneen McEachern)
5. Selling Out (Sonny Terry)
6. Tracking Through The Snow (Jemima James)
7. Lover's Lament (Deneen McEachern)
8. Walk All Over Georgia (Jemima James / George Higgs)
9. Have What You Got (Marc Galbo)
10. Held Up In One Town (Louisiana Red)
11. Emergency Call (Jemima James)
12. Somebody Tell Somebody (George Higgs)
13. Dog Following Me (Jemima James / Deneen McEachern)
14. Red Sun (Louisian Red)
15. If She's Gone Bad (Lightnin' Wells)
16. When My Mama Was Living (Louisiana Red)
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