"The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" (including the "Long Overdue" LP) by GORDON SMITH (2008 Sony/Blue Horizon CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Having A Good Time..."

Once in a very blue moon - a CD comes along that grabs you by the short and curlies and blows your tiny gin-sozzled mind. Gordon Smith's "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" is that album. What a blast – and there’s so much of it too. Here are the finite Acoustic Blues…

UK released September 2008 – "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" by GORDOM SMITH on Sony/Blue Horizon 88697359852 (Barcode 886973598528) is a CD Remaster and breaks down as follows (76:07 minutes):

1. Diving Duck Blues [Sleepy John Estes cover]

2. Highway 51 [Tommy McClenman cover]

3. One Dime Blues [Blind Lemon Jefferson cover]

4. Having A Good Time [Gordon Smith song - instrumental]

5. Instrumental No. 2 [Gordon Smith song]

6. Walking Blues [Robert Johnson cover/Muddy Waters Arrangement]

7. Rolling And Tumbling  [Traditional Blues cover]

8. I Been Down So Long [J.B. Lenoir cover]

9. Instrumental No. 4 [Gordon Smith song]

10. Pearlie Blues [Traditional Blues cover]

11. The Woman Down The Hall [Gordon Smith song]

12. Big Road Blues [Gordon Smith song]

13. Instrumental No. 3 [Gordon Smith song]

14. Worried Life Blues [Sleepy John Estes cover]

Tracks 1 to 14 are his lone album "Long Overdue" LP issued on the cult UK label Blue Horizon Records 7-63211 in March 1969. It's an incredibly hard-to-find acoustic blues rarity clocking in at over £100 - if you can actually locate one. It reputedly sold over 4000 copies on release but in the near 20 years that I've been dealing with rare records - I've never actually seen one. So it's reissue is welcome and a huge plus for blues fans everywhere.

BONUS TRACKS:

15. Nobody’s Fault But Mine [Blind Willie Johnson cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

16. One Dime Blues (Take 1) [Blind Lemon Jefferson cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

17. Instrumental No. 2 (Take 1) [Gordon Smith song] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

18. Walking Blues (Alternate Mono Version) [Robert Johnson cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

19. Rollin’ & Tumblin’ (Alternate Mono Version) [Traditional Blues cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

20. Walking Blues (Electric Version, Take 1) [Robert Johnson cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

21. Pearlie Blues (Alternate Mono Version) [Traditional Blues cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

22. I’m So Glad (Take 1) [Skip James cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

23. Instrumental No.1 (Take 3) [Gordon Smith cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

24. When You Got A Good Friend [Robert Johnson cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

25. I’m So Glad (Take 2) [Skip James cover]– PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

26. Too Long

27. Funk Pedal – tracks 26 and 27 are his lone 7" single on Blue Horizon Records 57-3156 issued in July 1969 (both are non-album tracks) and again the 7” single is impossibly rare - itself upwards to £20 to find a mint copy in it's distinctive Blue Horizon label bag. The A-side is a Mississippi Sheiks cover while the B-side is an instrumental cover of a Robert Johnson song. 

28. I’m Sitting On Top Of The World (Mono) [Robert Johnson cover] – PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Tracks 15 through to 25 and 28 are all previously unreleased. Some were from his aborted 2nd album and all are being made available here for the first time anywhere. All are studio quality finished versions.

The original analogue master tapes have been used, mastered by SEAN LYNCH at Torch Music - the sound is SUPERB - clear, warm and punchy. There is hiss on some of the quieter tracks like "Instrumental No. 4" but it's not enough to detract.

The detailed 12-page booklet has a really informative and enthusiastic essay by the label founder MIKE VERNON which stylishly mixes the personal with the factual - making for a really great read. There are promo photos from the Blue Horizon archives of Gordon with his guitar, the A & B-sides and label bags of obscure 7” singles along with the rare album sleeve are pictured too. There's a concert poster showing that he supported Muddy Waters on tour in the UK and a very detailed track-by-track session breakdown. All of it is contained by a card wrap on the outside - which gives the release a classy and eventful look. 

Several tracks contain guests: the opener, a cover of Sleepy John Estes' "Diving Duck Blues" has PETER GREEN on Harmonica (he plays a blinder) while PETER HALL adds lovely rolling piano blues to the instrumental "Having A Good Time". Another label mate DUSTER BENNETT compliments Smith's stunning acoustic blues with his Harmonica work on the Robert Johnson cover of "Walking Blues". Fans of that early FLEETWOOD MAC sound will flip for the version of J.B. Lenoir's "I Been Down So Long" which has both JOHN McVIE and MICK FLEETWOOD on it. Their rhythm section work perfectly compliments this really cool blues shuffle.

However, the album mostly highlights the beautifully deft guitar work of the 20-year old lad from Tyne & Wear. Many tracks are guitar and vocals only. It sounds like Robert Johnson transported from the 30's to the 60's and 5 of the tunes are his own compositions - pretty impressive stuff really. His voice sounds a little like Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac, but it's his guitar playing that impresses most - especially on the acoustic guitar with a bottleneck squeaking up and down the frets. If you want a good taster of what to expect - try to access the Traditional Blues air of "Pearlie Blues" if possible - wonderfully evocative of the Delta that has so obviously entranced him -body and soul.

I love acoustic blues - especially a really good string bender. And what you get here is a cracking great album full of it - a wad of tasty outtakes that you'll play again rather than just listen to once and leave there - and all of it wrapped up in Grade A packaging. Brill!

Investigate this superb GORDON SMITH CD soonest. An exemplary reissue - and hats off to all the good people involved - keeping the blues flame alive…

"The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" by OTIS SPANN feat Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac [including the 1969 LP "The Biggest Thing Since Colossus"] (2006 Sony/Blue Horizon 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"…In Our Hearts Forever…"

Released in May 1969 - "The Biggest Things Since Colossus" was a lone-LP outing for the Chicago-born piano-player OTIS SPANN on the cult Blue Horizon label. It's long been a notoriously difficult-to-find vinyl rarity - clocking in at a ton sterling (if you can locate one). The fact that it contains much of FLEETWOOD MAC in their Peter Green bluesy prime is all the more enticing.

UK released May 2006 - "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" by OTIS SPANN (featuring Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) is a 2CD Remaster on Sony/Blue Horizon 82876822902 (Barcode 828768229026) and is roughly based around Spann's "The Biggest Thing..." album. Here are the titan-like details...

Disc 1:

1. Can’t Do Me No Good

2. Bloody Murder

Tracks 1 and 2 are the non-LP A & B-side of his 1st UK 7" single released September 1968 on Blue Horizon Records 57-3142

The band line-up is Otis Spann (vocals and piano), Walter "Shakey" Horton (harmonica), Johnny Shines (guitar), Willie Dixon (Upright Bass) and Clifton James (Drums)

3. Someday Soon Baby

4. Hungry Country Girl

Tracks 3 and 4 are on the 20-track 1969 2LP set "Blues Jam At Chess" on Blue Horizon Records 7-66227

The band line-up is Otis Spann (vocals and piano), Peter Green and Danny Kirwan (guitars), John McVie (Bass) and Mick Fleetwood (Drums)

5. My Love Depends On You

6. Walkin’

7. It Was A Big Thing

8. Temperature Is Rising (110.2 F)

9. Dig You

10. No More Doggin’

11. Ain’t Nobody’s Business

12. She Needs Some Loving

13. I Need Some Air

14. Someday Baby

Tracks 5 to 14 are the entire LP "The Biggest Thing Since Colossus" on Blue Horizon Records (7-63217) from May 1969 (false starts, studio talk are included along with the master takes)

The band line-up is Otis Spann (vocals and piano), Peter Green and Danny Kirwan (guitars), John McVie (Bass) and S.P. Leary replacing Mick Fleetwood (Drums)

Disc 2:

1. No More Doggin’ (Take 1)

2. No More Doggin’ (Take 2, False Start Plus Take 3)

3. I Need Some Air (Take 1, False Start Plus Take 2)

4. Walkin’ (Take 1 & 2, False Starts Plus Take 4)

5. Walkin’ (Take 4)

6. Blues For Hippies (Take 1 – Complete Master Version/Remix)

7. Temperature Is Rising (98.8 F) (Take 1 – Single Master Version/Remix)

8. Someday Baby (Take 1, 2 & 3 – False Starts Plus Take 4)

9. Someday Baby (Take 5)

10. Someday Baby (Take 6)

11. She Needs Some Loving (Take 1)

12. Dig You (Take 1)

13. Dig You (Take 2 – False Start Plus Take 3)

14. She’s Out Of Sight (Take 1 & 2 – False Starts Plus Take 3)

Tracks 1 to 14 are all previously unissued versions with studio chatter and false starts included (with the same line-up as "The Biggest Thing Since Colossus" sessions).

There's a couple of niggles worth mentioning. "Someday Baby", the last track on Disc 1, is credited as being written by Otis Spann, but I'm sure it's a cover of a Sleepy John Estes and Hammock Nixon song from the 1940's (an admin error no doubt). Second is the title of the set itself - "The Complete...Sessions" - when it actually isn't complete! Tracks 3 and 4 on Disc 1 are from the 2LP set "Blues Jam At Chess" as I've already pointed out, but there are in fact 7 more tracks on that double featuring Otis Spann (with Fleetwood Mac accompanying). You'll have to buy the 2 volumes now titled "Blues Jam In Chicago Volume One" and "Blues Jam In Chicago Volume Two" to truly get a 'complete' picture of that hugely productive year - 1969. Third, there's also Spann’s work on the Johnny Shines Blue Horizon LP "Last Night's Dream" again from 1969 – that’s available on the Sunnyland Slim and Johnny Shines “The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions” CD set from February 2008. And fourth are his fantastic piano contributions to Johnny Young's sole Blue Horizon LP, "Fat Mandolin", now re-issued on CD as "The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions" (see separate review). All in all, it could have been a 3CD set, but would probably have been commercially unviable as such. Besides, as I say, the tracks are available on separate releases if you really want them. If anything, the absences on this 2CD set only wet the appetite for more.

Anyway, back to this issue. It opens with a lethal non-album one-two - cool “Shakey” Horton harmonica playing lingering over the slow Blues of “Bloody Murder” – a reworking of a 1953 Frank “Honeyboy” Patt song on Specialty Records suitably called “Bloodstains On The Wall”. The seven-minute “Someday Soon” has studio chatter and Green pinging away delicately as Spann encourages the English boy “Don’t stop!” Spann was clearly as enamoured with Peter Green and his motley British crew as they were with him - both singing each others' respective praises between takes and clearly enjoying the whole recording process. Sounding at times like Muddy Waters in his vocal delivery – tracks like “Someday Baby” have Spann and his band just ‘cook’ – a perfect meeting and white and black blues lovers digging it the most. The Rosco Gordon classic “No More Doggin’” sounds incredible – the remaster bringing out a band on fire - while their boss swears he’ll have no more foolin’ around from his lady (Green lets rip – Spann pounds the keys and shouts “Sock It To me!” – it’s thrilling stuff). Disc 2 has more fabulous Blues for Fleetwood Mac fans – Peter Green enjoying himself as Spann shouts, “Where’s my guitar player! Let me hear from you!” during Takes 1 & 2 of “She’s Out Of Sight”.

Tragically Spann was taken ill in early 1970 and died of cancer in April of that year, criminally robbing the blues world of a legend at only 40 years of age. The liner notes explain that because of non-payment of musician union dues, for the lack of $1000, his plot remained without a headstone for years until an internet campaign was launched - and in June 1999 - a headstone was finally dedicated to him reading "Otis Played The Deepest Blues We Ever Heard. He'll Play In Our Hearts Forever". Mike Vernon, Producer of this re-issue and leading light at Blue Horizon, contributed to that campaign - and it's clear from his detailed and affectionate liner notes - that this project was a labour of love for him. Luckily it's been so for us too.

Complete with a card-wrap on the outside - this is a classy release for a bluesman who has remained in relative obscurity for way too long. Fantastic sound, beautifully presented, wads of unheard gems - a truly masterful release - and one I urge you to purchase pronto…

PS: the four Blue Horizon releases pictured below also feature OTIS SPANN on varying tracks