Sunnyland Slim – Rockin’ The House
Wolf Records
19 songs – 61 minutes
Albert Luandrew was born in Vance, Mississippi, in 1906. By the the time he died in 1995, he had had a prolific recording career spanning some five decades, in addition to being a key figure in the development of Chicago blues, both through his piano playing and his singing (playing with the likes of Big Bill Broonzy, Little Walter and Muddy Waters) but also through his constant support and encouragement to up and coming artists, including the aforementioned Muddy Waters, whom he introduced to Chess (then Aristocrat) records in 1946. Luandrew’s stage name of Sunnyland Slim came the song “Sunnyland Train”, about a railroad line between Memphis and St. Louis, Missouri.
Unlike some of his piano-playing contemporaries such as Memphis Slim or Eddie Boyd, who found success and acceptance in moving to Europe, Slim remained firmly based in Chicago, playing small, local blues clubs deep into his 80s. In 1975, however, he did undertake a solo tour of Europe at the tender age of 69 and by good fortune, some performances on that tour were recorded by members of Vienna Blues Fan Club. By even greater good fortune, 19 of those recordings have now been released as Rockin’ The House, on Wolf Records.
The quality of the recordings is absolutely first rate, as are Slim’s performances. Like Nina Simone, Slim’s piano playing always has a sense of mischief to it, so that even the saddest songs sound like there is light at the end of tunnel and hope for the future. And his solo on his own “I Done You Wrong” is a hilarious exercise in mock-sadness as he bids adieu to an old flame. His voice is also in fine fettle, his Mississippi background evident in the way the notes linger and dip at the end of a line.
Perhaps the songs on Rockin’ The House were the songs he played every night in Chicago, or perhaps he deliberately added in some classics because that’s what his European audience wanted to hear. Either way, we have a fine mixture of Slim originals, such as “Got To Get To My Baby”, “The Devil Is A Busy Man” and “It’s You, Baby”, which sit comfortably with stone cold classics like Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom”, Jimmy Oden’s “Goin’ Down Slow”, Memphis Slim’s “Rockin’ The House” and T-Bone Walker’s “They Call It Stormy Monday”. He drolly impersonates Howlin’ Wolf on a medley of Wolf songs, while Curtis Jones’ “Tin Pan Alley” is played in a manner quite unrecognisable from Johnny Winter’s cover. One of many highlights is the rollicking instrumental, “Sunnyland’s Boogie” in which the audience try to clap on the 1, the 2, the 3 and the 4. Thankfully, they soon settle down so we can enjoy some genuinely raucous barrelhouse piano.
Sunnyland Slim recorded prolifically over the years, often for labels he helped to establish. But, like other much-recorded geniuses like Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker, the world will always benefit from hearing more Sunnyland Slim. Rockin’ The House is both a throwback but also a breath of fresh air. It sounds as vital today as the night it was recorded 50 years ago. Highly recommended.
