Similar Albums:
- Artist: Snooks Eaglin
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1959
- Type: Compilation (best of)
- Genre: Blues
Review
Ford "Snooks" Eaglin's first released recordings, the ones collected here, suggested to the world that Eaglin was a great lost country blues player when he was, in fact, an excellent electric guitar player and a gospel-influenced singer who much preferred playing R&B with a band. When folklorist Harry Oster heard Eaglin busking with his guitar on a street in the French Quarter in 1958, he whisked him over to Louisiana State University and recorded the tracks collected here, either assuming that Eaglin was a folk artist or possibly even asking him to portray one for the sake of the recording. Either way, New Orleans Street Singer was a revelation when it was released by Folkways Records a year later in 1959, presenting to the world a gifted guitar player and a naturally soulful singer who brought a kind of jazzy New Orleans feel and groove to the folk-blues standards he was covering. The album is no less a revelation in the 21st century, although hindsight allows listeners to realize that the folk stance was probably more Oster's preference than Eaglin's. The guitar work is quick and fluid, with lead bursts that surprise and delight, continually settling on unexpected but highly effective chordal resolves, and the singing throughout is steady and informed, sounding a bit like Ray Charles, with tinges of both gospel and jazz phrasing. In Eaglin's hands traditional fare like "Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes" (a variant of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down") become reborn and re-formed into definitive versions. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Alberta | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:41) |
| That's All Right | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:13) |
| Malaguena | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:41) |
| When They Ring Them Golden Bells | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:37) |
| Remember Me | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:27) |
| Fly Right Back Baby | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (4:04) |
| I Don't Know | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (1:57) |
| Mean Old World | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:39) |
| I Must See Jesus | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:37) |
| She's One Black Rat | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:14) |
| Don't You Lie to Me | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:16) |
| Well, I Had My Fun (Goin' Down Slow) | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:07) |
| Brown Skin Woman | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:47) |
| Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:00) |
| Who's Been Foolin' You | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:27) |
| When Shadows Fall | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (1:44) |
| One More Drink | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:47) |
| I Got a Woman | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:13) |
| Come Back, Baby | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:38) |
| Trouble in Mind | Richard M. Jones | Snooks Eaglin | (2:50) |
| I Got My Questionnaire | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:26) |
| The Drifter Blues | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (3:51) |
| Every Day I Have the Blues | Memphis Slim | Snooks Eaglin | (3:52) |
| A Thousand Miles from Home | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:13) |
| I'm Looking for a Woman | Snooks Eaglin | Snooks Eaglin | (2:24) |
