New Orleans Street Singer [Bonus Tracks]

• Artist: Snooks Eaglin
• Rating:
• Release Date: August 30, 2005
• 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 in this expanded edition from Smithsonian Folkways, although hindsight allows us 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 (the original instrumental "Sophisticated Blues" is a case in point), 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 "Saint James Infirmary," the near-ragtime "High Society," and the familiar "Mama, Don't You Tear My Clothes" (a variant of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down") all become reborn and re-formed into definitive versions. The seven additional tracks expand the original album to around 70 minutes in length, and the alternate takes included of "Careless Love," "Driftin' Blues," and "The Lonesome Road" show that Eaglin didn't necessarily approach a song the same way twice in a row. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Looking for a Woman	Jimmy McCracklin	Snooks Eaglin	(2:29)
Walking Blues [#]	Sam Hopkins	Snooks Eaglin	(3:01)
Careless Love		Snooks Eaglin	(2:36)
Saint James Infirmary		Snooks Eaglin	(2:23)
High Society	Armand Piron, Clarence Williams	Snooks Eaglin	(1:37)
I Got My Questionnaire		Snooks Eaglin	(3:24)
Let Me Go Home, Whiskey	Shifty Henry	Snooks Eaglin	(2:55)
Mama, Don't Tear My Clothes [#]		Snooks Eaglin	(2:11)
Trouble in Mind	Richard M. Jones	Snooks Eaglin	(2:50)
The Lonesome Road	Gene Austin, Nathaniel Shilkret	Snooks Eaglin	(1:50)
Helping Hand (A Thousand Miles Away from Home)	Dave Bartholomew, Antoine Domino	Snooks Eaglin	(2:15)
One Room Country Shack [#]	Mercy Dee Walton	Snooks Eaglin	(3:05)
Who's Been Foolin' You [#]	Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup	Snooks Eaglin	(2:26)
Drifting Blues [#]	Charles Brown, Eddie Williams	Snooks Eaglin	(3:40)
Sophisticated Blues	Snooks Eaglin	Snooks Eaglin	(2:09)
Come Back, Baby [#]	Walter Davis	Snooks Eaglin	(2:09)
Rock Island Line		Snooks Eaglin	(2:08)
See See Rider		Snooks Eaglin	(3:11)
One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer	Rudy Toombs	Snooks Eaglin	(2:46)
Mean Old World	Aaron Walker	Snooks Eaglin	(3:50)
Mean Old Frisco	Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup	Snooks Eaglin	(2:37)
Every Day I Have the Blues	Memphis Slim	Snooks Eaglin	(3:56)
Careless Love [2][#]		Snooks Eaglin	(2:34)
Drifting Blues [2]		Snooks Eaglin	(3:50)
The Lonesome Road [2][#]		Snooks Eaglin	(1:27)

Credits

Richard Burgess (Marketing), Richard Burgess (Marketing Coordinator), Harry Oster (Producer), Harry Oster (Engineer), Harry Oster (Photography), Jeff Place (Archivist), Dan Sheehy (Production Supervisor), Ronnie Simpkins (Audio Supervisor), Elijah Wald (Liner Notes), Elijah Wald (Supervisor), Elijah Wald (Reissue Compilation), Elijah Wald (Annotation), Pete Reiniger (Mastering), Pete Reiniger (Sound Supervision), Mary Monseur (Production Coordination), Carla Borden (Editing), Stephanie Smith (Archivist), Lee Michael Demsey (?), John "BJ John" Smith (Marketing), D.A. Sonneborn (Production Supervisor), John Passmore (Coordination), Jacob Love (Editorial Assistant), Mark Gustafson (Marketing), Norman van der Sluys (Audio Engineer), Helen Lindsay (Public Relations), Joe Parisi (Design), Joe Parisi (Layout Design), Joe Parisi (Cover Illustration), Amy Schriefer (Program Assistant), Betty Derbyshire (Financial Director), Todd Dodds (Management)