The Kentucky Headhunters - Meet Me In Bluesland (2015) MP3@320kbps Beolab1700
The Kentucky Headhunters, Johnnie Johnson - Meet Me In Bluesland
Artist...............: The Kentucky Headhunters, Johnnie Johnson
Album................: Meet Me In Bluesland
Genre................: Blues
Source...............: CD
Year.................: 2015
Ripper...............: EAC (Secure mode) / LAME 3.92 & Asus CD-S520
Codec................: LAME 3.99
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: Insane, (avg. bitrate: 320kbps)
Channels.............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz
Tags.................: ID3 v1.1, ID3 v2.3
Information..........:
Posted by............: Beolab1700 on 08/06/2015
Tracklisting
01. Stumblinâ™ (3:08)
02. Walking With The Wolf (3:28)
03. Little Queenie (3:31)
04. Sheâ™s Got To Have It (3:18)
05. Party In Heaven (3:28)
06. Meet Me In Bluesland (5:44)
07. King Rooster (4:31)
08. Shufflinâ™ Back To Memphis (4:50)
09. Fast Train (3:34)
10. Sometime (3:55)
11. Superman Blues (4:02)
This album is rockinâ™ Appalachia-billy thatâ™ll put a big ole grin on your face. Beginning life as the aptly named Itchy Brothers in â™68, Brothers Richard and Fred Young, along with cousins Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney, became the The Kentucky Headhunters in â™86. Their loose-limbed, rattly backwoods rock and roll earned them accolades since their â™89 debut, Pickinâ™ On Nashville. That original lineup is still in place with the addition of Doug Phelps on rhythm and lead vocals.
But back in â™03, the band temporarily took on another member. Chuck Berryâ™s pianist Johnnie Johnson joined with the band to cut some tracks for â™03â™s Soul. The band liked the result so much they planned to make it a standalone release, but the project got shelved until last fall, when Johnsonâ™s widow contacted the band and asked them to release it before she got too old to enjoy it.
Age has only improved this offering. Released June 2, 2015, as Meet Me in Bluesland, itâ™s a raucous romp through a passel of original rockers, with Johnson providing rhythm and blues flourishes “Stumblinâ™” is Headhunter speak for what you do after a couple of ‘skis down at Dumas Walkers. Doug Phelps bawls these lines while Richard Young provides the Chuck Berry twang, with a ton of whammy bar action.
The band takes its first excursion into bluesland with “Walking with the Wolf.” Richard Young bellows raw screaminâ™ blues over greasy Allman-esque slide, offset by Johnsonâ™s delicate piano tiptoeing through the juke joint, tinkling like breaking bottles.
Berryâ™s “Little Queenie” showcases Johnsonâ™s barrelhouse piano, pounding out licks like a wrecking ball. Johnson gets top billing once again on “Sheâ™s Got to Have It,” his last recorded vocal, his basso croak thick as molasses.
Although he didnâ™t write “Party in Heaven,” it reeks of Berry-isms, chugging along like a boogie-woogie freight train bound for glory, with Johnson shoveling coal into his pumpinâ™ piano, Young hanging in on guitar like a dirty shirt, stinkinâ™ with rattly Berry twang.
Itâ™s long been rumored that Johnson never got credit for all the tunes credited to Berry. In the â™86 documentary Hail Hail Rock and Roll, celebrating Berryâ™s 60th birthday, bandleader for the occasion Keith Richards wondered aloud about Berryâ™s tunes being in piano keys, alluding to the fact that Johnson may have written many of them. He may never get credit for that – Johnson died in â™05 at the age of 80. But thanks to the Headhunters, his legacy and his powers as a performer live on, showcased here at the height of his powers.