Track Listing
1. Alabama
2. Mojo Boogie
3. God's Word
4. Whale Has Swallowed Me, The
5. Move This Rope
6. I Feel So Good
7. Alabama March
8. Talk to Your Daughter
9. Mississippi Road
10. Good Advice
11. Vietnam
12. I Want to Go
13. Down in Mississippi
14. Slow Down Woman
15. If I Get Lucky
16. Shot on James Meredith
17. Round and Round
18. Voodoo Music
19. Born Dead
20. Leavin' Here
21. Vietnam Blues
22. How Much More
23. Tax Payin' Blues
24. Feelin' Good
| Details | | Playing Time: | 65 min. | | Producer: | Horst Lippmann | | Distributor: | Select-O-Hits | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: J.B. Lenoir (vocals, acoustic guitar), Freddie Below (drums), Willie Dixon (background vocals).
Reissue producer: Jerry Gordon.
Tracks 1-12 recorded in Chicago, Illinois on May 5, 1965 and tracks 13-24 recorded at Sound Studio, Chicago, Illinois on September 2, 1966.
ALABAMA BLUES originally released on L & R (42.001). DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI originally released on L & R (42.102). Includes liner notes by Jonny Meister.
All songs written by J.B. Lenoir.
VIETNAM BLUES combines two full-length albums, ALABAMA BLUES and DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI.
Unlike any blues music released in the 1960s, the idiosyncratic acoustic forms created by J.B. Lenoir during his tenure with L&R Records recall traditional country blues while simultaneously pushing the genre in new directions. Miles removed--in conception and feel--from the electric Chicago blues of his early career, Lenoir's L&R work is wholly acoustic, intensely personal, and seems to pulse and surge to its own uniquely designed metronome. VIETNAM BLUES collects Lenoir's last two albums (before his untimely death in 1967), 1965's ALABAMA BLUES and 1966's DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI, both of which were produced under the supervision of blues icon Willie Dixon.
The music on VIETNAM BLUES is quite stark, with the focus on Lenoir's mesmerizing open chords, syncopated embellishments, and high, soulful tenor. On several tracks, Dixon provides additional vocals and drummer Freddie Below lends his brushwork (on what sounds like a lone snare drum) to the shuffling, driving rhythms, further heightening the intimate, front-porch feel. But what really strikes the listener is Lenoir's songwriting, which fearlessly takes on issues like racial discrimination and the Vietnam War with eloquence and passion. Politically committed and performed with searing intensity, Lenoir's last recordings are the finest of his career, the crowning achievement of his overlooked legacy.
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