John Hammond – You’re Doin’ Fine – 3 CD Set – Blues At The Boarding House – San Francisco 1973
This is a wonderfully designed CD package with reinforced binding & perfect bound liner notes. There are photographs & detailed credits. Nothing shoddy & the Grammy-nominated John Hammond is a deserving artist. The live recordings were produced by Owsley Stanley & the release producer Hawk has done an admirable job.
For those unfamiliar, this singer is the son of the legendary producer/talent scout extraordinaire John Hammond (Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Charlie Christian, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Mike Bloomfield among many others). So, New York City-born John Paul Hammond is an acorn that didn’t fall too far from the tree (he recommended The Band to Bob Dylan).
The 3 CDs that comprise You’re Doin’ Fine – Blues At The Boarding House – June 2 & 3, 1973 San Francisco (Drops Nov 22/Owsley Stanley Foundation) have 45 tracks. Many in the repertoire were written originally by legendary blues artists too numerous to mention. With many of these artists long dead John Hammond was always a catalyst. He kept the tradition & the music alive as close to its original inception as possible.
CD 1 (13 tracks/62:22) opens with an invigorating picked Willie Dixon tune “Wang Dang Doodle” that slides saucily into a harmonica run that comes through clear & pristine. Amazing since this live show is 51 years old. But its attraction is the atmosphere as well. The between-song patter has its presence when it can be heard. The performance before a receptive audience is fairly low-key with little in the way of musical embellishments i.e. horns, lead guitar sparks, piano thumping & drums thundering.
In a word, the show is spare but delivered with the charcoal-voiced delicacy of Hammond. This is the way the blues was intended – no showboating, no fireworks, just layering on the levels of bluesy guitar notes on his resonator guitar.
Sometimes we must ask ourselves if there is importance alone in the artistic sense, or in a matter of conjuring taste. The scent of the blues is an attractive genre. But there’s nothing humorous about the blues. Maybe its appeal is that anyone with a pain in their heart & conscience can relate to the threadbare feelings the blues can run through one’s soul.
Hammond has nuance, intonation & tonality at all the right junctions of his material. Unlike a Tom Jones/Janis Joplin-type, he doesn’t project the blues with vocal power. His resonator guitar fills in the friskiness & precision. Blues is not always an easy sell to the average ear. But a vein of melody opens & spills through the Boarding House room as John navigates the voicings of Robert Johnson in his classic “Sweet Home Chicago.”
Despite his moderate commercial success John has never failed to sing with an absorbing tone & authenticity. He’s had a loyal following throughout his career. There’s no posturing, no emulating, or sugar-coating. John adds a tint of vitality that the vintage bluesmen may not have added since they “lived” their blues & were not necessarily singing to entertain but to communicate.
With CD 2 (17 tracks/69:30) John opens with the upbeat Little Walter’s “You’re So Fine.” The song goes against the blues conventions that the music is primarily about anything melancholy, a heartbreaking relationship with a woman who did one wrong, losing a job, being inebriated, on the road cold & hungry, or living in poor conditions. However, this song gets the audience howling.
What slows the pace a bit is not being able to decipher the dialogue because John may be off mike. His re-tuning the guitar, which is necessary, also slows the pace of a recorded effort. But the recording itself is dutifully produced & captured. The energy is there, endowed with the spirit of the night’s performance. The side closes with a flourish of guitar & a fine Hammond vocal on “Son House’s “Preachin’ Blues.”
CD 3 (15 tracks/63:57) also recorded June 3rd starts with a surprisingly ebullient “Go On To School” that sounds like it was recorded yesterday. Whereas the John Lee Hooker/Jules Taub tune “Ride ‘Til I Die” is one of the best covers on the live set with a little percussive embellishment & John Lee Hooker was in the audience.
For some reason I find this final disk sounding a bit more polished than the others & they were both good. There’s a little more gravity & coloration to these performances. There’s some duplication song-wise over the nights John played but each is equally inspiring. “Look On Yonder’s Wall,” is more spirited on the June 3rd take.
Blues also has a tendency for repetition, but Hammond is an adept player & tries to avoid such potholes. Chuck Berry’s “No Money Down” works far better than the old Robert Johnson’s “Terraplane Blues,” cover which at over 5 minutes was a bit laborious.
Some songs work well recorded short & sweet since the blues is not an extended form genre unless there are many instrumental solos. On stage, there’s little entertainment value with a 5-minute blues since they’re generally repetitious. The blues is a state of mind, not a groove. The playing on Blind Boy Fuller’s “Truckin’ Little Baby” will grab the ear quickly. The guitar, foot tapping & zesty performance has lots of value-added as an entertaining performance. It motivates the audience to participate.
Though Hammond isn’t from the classic “blues era” of legendary performers (’30s-’50s) he’s a vital member of the second wave that materialized in the ’60s & he survived is authentic. This document is for blues aficionados & would for some be a great introduction to the vintage classic whiskey blues with a water chaser. Some people need a splash if they’re going to take a sip. And this set is worth appreciating by many.
Highlights – “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Shake For Me,” “Rag Mama,” “Sweet Home Chicago,” “I Wish You Would,” “You’re So Fine,” the June 2nd “Look On Yonder’s Wall,” “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” “Boogie Chillen’,” “Preachin’ Blues,” “Go On To School,” “Ride ‘Til I Die,” the June 3rd “Look On Yonder’s Wall,” “No Money Down” & “Truckin’ Little Baby.”
Color image courtesy of Jessica Chornesky. CD @ Amazon & https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/john-hammond-blues-at-the-boarding-house-june-2-3-1973/ & http://www.johnhammond.com/