Sheepishly I admitted being familiar with Johnnie Johnson’s and Arthur Alexander’s records, but never had been aware that they were part of an Elektra Nonesuch series…
These records covered a wide range of styles: rockabilly (Charlie Feathers), blues (Johnnie Johnson), country/Americana (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark, and The Kentucky Headhunters), zydeco (Boozoo Chavis), soul (Arthur Alexander, Fontella Bass), gospel (Vernard Johnson, The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama, and Fontella Bass), and Latin (Eddie Palmieri)…
And thus a new project was born!
Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat and armed with a digital magnifying glass I dove headfirst in the murky depths of the World Wide Web. Most of the albums weren’t too difficult to locate, either on obscure/forgotten blogs or through dubious file-sharing thingies.
The only one giving me serious headaches was The Five Blind Boys Of Alabama Featuring Clarence Fountain’s Deep River album. Despite my considerable efforts, I found zilch…
Of course, there are some copies for sale available on eBay, but I always consider it a challenge to find them somewhere instead. When the going gets tough, the tough get going to… YouTube! There I found 2 songs from the album of decent enough quality to be allowed into my project!
I rounded up some album art and reviews from various sources and mucked around with them a few times until they fit my PDF format. Last part was coming up with a cover design and writing this piece!
The result is a 22-track sampler which sounds pretty good, although Eddie Palmieri is the odd one out. His Latin album is not bad at all, but very different style-wise from the rest of the series! Anyway, hear the results and judge for yourself.
http://tinyurl.com/AmExplorers
ReplyDelete(includes PDF with further info and cover images for all 11 albums)
I asked Koen about the American Explorer series in an email exchange, and did not expect him to make it a research assignment! Many thanks, Koen!
I bought Johnnie Johnson's 1991 "Johnnie B. Bad" album when it came out, but I don't own any of the others. In 1993, Johnnie's collaboration with the Kentucky Headhunters was released as his second American Explorer release. "Johnnie B. Bad" includes two tracks produced by Keith Richards. Keith wrote "Tanqueray", and he sings "Key To The Highway". On those two tracks, Johnnie and Keef are backed by Joey Spampinato, drummer Steve Jordan, and Bernard Fowler (vocalist for Tackhead and the Charlie Watts Orchestra). Eric Clapton also appears on Johnnie B. Bad, but the rest of the musicians are from the Q: Steve Ferguson, Al Anderson, Joey, Terry and Tom Ardolino.
The "Deep River" album was produced by Booker T. Jones. Using my own detective hat, I did find it online, but not until after Koen finished the compilation. Also found this excellent article on Fontella Bass from the Oxford American:
https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-115-winter-2021/can-t-you-see-that-i-m-lonely
Arthur Alexander's album was reissued in an expanded edition after his death:
https://www.discogs.com/release/1440478-Arthur-Alexander-Lonely-Just-Like-Me-The-Final-Chapter
Johnnie B. Bad: https://krakenfiles.com/view/JgR2ghc8ca/file.html
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/4978385-Johnnie-Johnson-Johnnie-B-Bad
What an apt pupil, that Art! Sounds good. I know Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Fontella Bass, but not much about the others...
ReplyDeleteIDK if I'd call him a pupil! Koen's schooling me with his research and liner notes, not to mention the artists and albums that he's been sharing. Very grateful to have him contributing to the blog. I always enjoyed his writing for The Good Old Major's Hole.
DeleteOh, with the pupil thing I was just riffing on the word "assignment" in your post. He sure does have a knack for providing interesting pdf "booklets" - his background in visual arts is obvious.
DeleteI follow your meaning. If it WAS an assignment, it would get an A+!
DeleteThe American Explorer Series of the early 90s at Elektra was the product of the best intentions of the label's leadership to revitalize deserving American artists coupled with the extraordinary skill and ability of the A&R staff at the time to deliver on the vision. Profit motives and the bottom line were NOT a factor in this mission!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that insight! I sure would like to know more. I'm curious whether Ben Sandmel (author, musician, musicologist) wrote liner notes for all of the albums. I need to track down copies for my CD collection.
DeleteHear, hear!
DeleteI'm just getting around to downloading this. It looks great, Koen! - Stinky
ReplyDelete