"Need a Shot" The Essential Recordings of Urban Blues

Featuring two-dozen tracks drawn from commercially released 78s of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, Need a Shot is primarily a piano-based selection, although there is a fair amount of guitar and harmonica tossed in, and on occasion even drums, saxes, and clarinets. Labeled urban blues, these sides are only a little removed from their country blues roots, and pieces like Peetie Wheatstraw's "Working Man (Doing the Best I Can)" (the melody line, a common one in the early blues, was used by Bob Dylan for his "Pledging My Time"), Roosevelt Sykes' "Night Time Is the Right Time," and Washboard Sam's funky and ragged "Back Door" played just as well in the rural jukes of the Deep South as they did in the bars up north. In spite of the subtitle, these 24 selections don't exactly add up to an essential survey of the early urban blues, but there's plenty of foot-stomping fun going on here and it's hard to have a serious problem with that. (Steve Leggett, Allmusic)

trax:
1. Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On - Bumble Bee Slim 2. Policy Wheel Blues - Kokomo Arnold 3. Trouble In Mind - Georgia White 4. Bad Luck Man - The Harlem Hamfats 5. Louise Louise Blues - Johnnie Temple 6. Working Man (Doing The Best I Can) - Peetie Wheatstraw 7. Think You Need A Shot - Walter Davis 8. New Little Pretty Mama - Bill Gaither 9. Night Time Is The Right Time - Roosevelt Sykes 10. Lonesome Bedroom Blues - Curtis Jones 11. Back Door - Washboard Sam 12. 'Way Down In Louisiana - Casey Bill Weldon 13. Want To Woogie Some More - Merline Johnson 14. What Is That She Got? - Big Bill Broonzy 15. Lonesome Shack Blues - Memphis Minnie 16. Baby, Take A Chance With Me - Tampa Red 17. Key To The Highway - Bill "Jazz" Gillum 18. Beer Drinking Woman - Memphis Slim 19. County Jail Blues - Big Maceo 20. Goin' Down Slow - St. Louis Jimmy 21. He's A Jelly-Roll Baker - Lonnie Johnson 22. Ain't No Business We Can Do - Doctor Clayton 23. Big Time Mama - Champion Jack Dupree 24. New Early In The Morning - Sonny Boy Williamson
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