Boozoo Chavis, Champion Jack Dupree, Johnny Adams, and Roomful of Blues
Johnnie Billygoat, A Portrait of Champion Jack Dupree, There Is Always One More Time, and The Blues'll Make You Happy, Too (Rounder)
Reviewed by Jim Caligiuri, Fri., Dec. 8, 2000
Johnny Adams
There Is Always One More Time (Rounder)
Boozoo Chavis
Johnnie Billy Goat (Rounder)
Champion Jack Dupree
A Portrait of Champion Jack Dupree (Rounder)
Roomful Of Blues
The Blues'll Make You Happy, Too (Rounder)
One of the ways Rounder Records, perhaps the premier roots music label in the country, is celebrating its 30th anniversary is with a 30-title series of releases it calls the Heritage Series. The concept is to present compilations of a variety of artists, both legendary and lesser-known, who have recorded for the label. In terms of style and genre, the first four releases in this series certainly are a varied lot, an impressive showing of the depth of Rounder's catalog. From a critical point of view, the most successful is Boozoo Chavis' Johnnie Billie Goat, 22 tracks that display the joy evident in his style of zydeco. After 25 years away from making music, Chavis reappeared in the mid-Eighties, and this disc does a fine job of capturing his influential sound since then. Collecting his best-known songs and three previously unreleased live performances, this is the definitive collection of his music for this time period. One would assume that's the goal of this series, and while the Chavis set is a treasure chest, the rest are less so. The late Johnny Adams enjoyed a moderately successful career as an R&B singer from the late Fifties through the Seventies. His work on Rounder found him expanding into jazz and blues with varying amounts of artistry, where he was usually hampered by less than skillful production. Sometimes, the arrangements on his Rounder collection seem clichéd and the musicianship seems hackneyed, other times his work is moving and full of soul. There Is Always One More Time shows both sides, and unfortunately, the bad outshines the good. Others may want to seek out Adams' tribute to Doc Pomus, here given short shrift (one track). Champion Jack Dupree was an influential blues pianist (and prizefighter) who first recorded in the Thirties. His Rounder work, 1990-1993, captured him at the tail end of his career, and features him in a relaxed setting at home in New Orleans. Nothing on A Portrait of... is essential, yet it does provide an accurate snapshot of Dupree as he was before he passed on, his conversational vocal style and masterful piano playing still vibrant and vital. Roomful of Blues, a horn-laden blues band with a constantly evolving membership, has been with Rounder since the label's beginning. Therefore, one must ask why the 14 tracks on The Blues'll Make You Happy, Too are weighted so heavily toward the Nineties. This is a band with a history that deserves to be told; past members include Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl, and members of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, yet a chance to do so seems to have been missed. The latter incarnations of Roomful are fine at what they do, jump and swing blues presented with a flair for fun, yet some of the tracks on this disc seem overblown and superfluous, especially since there are versions of the band that get no representation at all. Overall, this is a shaky start for the Heritage Series, and one can only hope they'll get it right from here on out.(Johnny Adams)
(Boozoo Chavis)
(Champion Jack Dupree)
(Roomful of Blues)