Blues

Jesse Fuller - Move On Down The Line (1965/2009)

2019-03-23T15:44:26Z

Jesse Fuller - Move On Down The Line (1965/2009)


1 	Move On Down The Line 	
2 	Stealing 	
3 	Ninety-Nine Years And One Dark Day 	
4 	Animal Fair 	
5 	Sleeping In The Midnight Cold 	
6 	Stackolee
7	John Henry 	
8 	Railroad Worksong 	
9 	Lining Up The Track 	
10 	Hanging 'Round A Skin Game 	
11 	Railroad Blues 	
12 	San Francisco Bay Blues

Jesse Fuller - Twelve-String Guitar, Kazoo, Cymbal, Harmonica, Vocals

Jesse Fuller called himself a folk songster. That's at least a start toward describing a wide-ranging, mostly sunny disposition blues that took in elements of jug band, ragtime, vaudeville, minstrel and Tin Pan Alley. Indeed, Fuller was a true American maverick, augmenting strong, plain-spoken vocals and driving acoustic 12-string guitar work with a one-man band approach that incorporated kazoo, harmonica, sock cymbal, and fotdella the latter a device of Fuller's own design and construction that allowed him to play a sawed-off upright bass with his feet.

Fuller is most well-known for writing the ragtimey 'San Francisco Bay Blues' (an ocean liner came and took her away.), a song that was ubiquitously covered during the 1960s folk boom and achieved status as a folk standard within Fuller's own lifetime. Of course, it's on this CD reissue featuring Fuller's earliest sessions in 1954, along with tracks he cut for the legendary British label Topic in 1965.

But as wonderful as the hit tune might be, it is far from the best thing to be found on the disc: Fuller's voice and guitar are supple and unerring on material that covers and conjures the likes of the Memphis Jug Band and Blind Willie McTell, reinventing them in Fuller's own idiom; a children�s zoo song (Animal Fair) lilts and syncopates with Caribbean and New Orleans cadences. At its best, Fuller's one-man band thing is transfixing and hypnotic. On Railroad Worksong for instance, a powerhouse medley of traditional train songs chugs along on the almost-unbelievable rhythmic energy generated by the interlocking elements of Fuller's rig, one man rocking like a killer juke joint band firing on all cylinders.

Writer and photographer Val Wilmer's liner notes are valuable here, combining personal remembrances of Fuller with an engaging biography of the artist. Fuller's life story is compelling, from his childhood of abuse and privation in the south, to his railroad-riding wanderings into the midwest and west; from his time operating a hot dog stand outside a Santa Monica movie studio lot to his eventual arrival at status as a San Francisco folk and blues icon. One hopes that this release will bring about a new appreciation for Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller's still-refreshing originality and highly-developed musical command. ---Kevin Macneil Brown, dustedmagazine.com

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Jesse Fuller - San Francisco Bay Blues (1963)

2019-02-25T16:22:41Z

Jesse Fuller - San Francisco Bay Blues (1963)


A1 	San Francisco Bay Blues 	2:59
A2 	Jesse's New Midnight Special 	2:40
A3 	Morning Blues 	3:50
A4 	Little Black Train 	2:19
A5 	Midnight Cold 	3:05
A6 	Whoa Mule 	2:07
B1 	John Henry 	4:48
B2 	I Got A Mind To Ramble 	2:39
B3 	Crazy About A Woman 	3:00
B4 	Where Could I Go But To The Lord 	1:54
B5 	Stealin' Back To My Old Time Used To Be 	2:40
B6 	Brownskin Girl 	3:14

Jesse Fuller - Vocals, Twelve-String Guitar, Harmonica, Kazoo, Hihat [Cymbals], Bass [Fotdella]

Born in Jonesboro, Georgia in 1896, Jesse Fuller spent most of his childhood growing up in the countryside outside Atlanta under what you could call less than ideal circumstances in a foster home. Fuller spent the next sixty years working a handful of odd jobs, working on the fields and in the farms, on the railroads and in the factories, and out in the street. His resume even included a stint in the circus and an appearance as an extra in the film The Thief of Bagdad. In the years just before World War II, Fuller found himself living in Oakland, CA and working for the railroad. As work became increasingly difficult to find after the end of the war Fuller began to consider, already well into his 50’s, the possibility of a career in music. This should have been an obvious choice for Fuller, as he had already developed a wide ranging repertoire of songs on the guitar as a boy. After failing to put together a dependable band, Fuller decided he’d simply have to become a one-man band.

San Francisco Bay Blues, Fuller’s first album, was released by the label Good Time Jazz in 1963 and features Fuller performing mostly originals, singing and playing guitar while accompanying himself on a variety of instruments, including harmonica, kazoo, high-hat, and the fotdella–a musical instrument of Fuller’s own creation that is essentially an upright bass with six strings that are plucked by a row of foot pedals. Every track is all Fuller and completely live with no overdubs of any kind.

The record kicks off with the title track, “San Francisco Bay Blues,” a completely classic song in every way. One of the quirkiest blues songs ever laid to wax, this tune has a good-time jug band vibe that leaves the listener feelin’ good and waiting for more. Side 2 kicks off with Fuller showcasing his bluesy bottleneck guitar style on “John Henry”, his own re-telling of the classic railroad tale of man vs. machine. “Stealin’ Back To My Old Time Used To Be” is an upbeat rag that features Fuller accompanying himself on acoustic 12 string guitar and harmonica, channeling a country blues sound straight from the Piedmont Georgia pines and backwoods farms of his youth. Fuller wraps it all up with “Brownskin Girl (I’ve Got My Eye On You),” a rollicking country-blues pop tune that sounds, like much of the album, too big to have been performed by just one man.

Fuller’s debut is notable not only for the top-notch singing and songwriting, as well as Fuller’s unique one-man band approach that he had perfected to a tee, but for being such a vivid portrait of, essentially, an old time street performer. Good Time Jazz Records had the foresight to capture Fuller in his prime, playing the songs the way he had intended, instead of forcing him to record with a band backing him, as was becoming more and more common with many of the blues records of the era that were streaming out of studios like Chess in Chicago. Good Time Jazz made the equally smart decision to send Fuller to a quality recording studio, and San Francisco Bay Blues greatly benefits from a wonderful quality of sound, where every instrument can be heard with a surprising clarity– putting the album, in terms of listenability, heads and shoulders above piles of excellent but muddy sounding blues records. The Grateful Dead, Dylan, Clapton, and others have covered his songs and the influence of Fuller and his bold one-man band sound can be heard in groups like Jim Kweskin and his motley crue of jug fanatics and the legions of kazoo blowing washboard wailers that had began popping up around America in the years just before and following the release of this lp. With a sound equally rooted in the Georgia country blues of Blind Willie McTell, the ragtime rompers of Gary Davis, and the old-timey jug sound of groups like The Memphis Jug Band, Fuller’s San Francisco Bay Blues serves as a bridge between the acoustic blues of the late 20s/early 30s and the acoustic blues and jug sounds of the mid-century urban folk music revival that brought hordes of bohemian beatniks into coffee shops from coast to coast–San Francisco Bay Blues brought the blues into a new era and onto the West Coast.

Simply put, San Francisco Bay Blues serves up a heapin’ helpin’ of upbeat, feel-good blues tunes, reminding you that, dark as the days may get, as long as you’re alive you’ve got a reason to dance. Better get ready! ---D.A. Glasebrook, therisingstorm.net

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Jesse Fuller ‎– A Session With Jesse Fuller (1966)

2019-02-19T15:36:07Z

Jesse Fuller ‎– A Session With Jesse Fuller (1966)


A1 	Bye And Bye 	
A2 	Stagolee 	
A3 	Crazy 'Bout A Woman 	
A4 	Hesitatin' Blues 	
B1 	99 Years And One Dark Day 	
B2 	How Long Blues 	
B3 	San Francisco Bay Blues 	
B4 	Fingerbuster 	
B5 	Going Back To My Old Used To Be

Jesse Fuller - guitar, vocals

Equipped with a band full of instruments operated by various parts of his anatomy, Bay Area legend Jesse Fuller was a folk music favorite in the '50s and '60s. His infectious rhythm and gentle charm graced old folk tunes, spirituals, and blues alike. One of his inventions was a homemade foot-operated instrument called the "footdella" or "fotdella." Naturally, Fuller never needed other accompanists to back his one-man show. His best-known songs include "San Francisco Bay Blues" and "Beat It on Down the Line" (the first one covered by Janis Joplin, the second by the Grateful Dead).

Born and raised in Georgia, Jesse Fuller began playing guitar when he was a child, although he didn't pursue the instrument seriously. In his early twenties, Fuller wandered around the southern and western regions of the United States, eventually settling down in Los Angeles. While he was in Southern California he worked as a film extra, appearing in The Thief of Bagdad, East of Suez, Hearts in Dixie, and End of the World. After spending a few years in Los Angeles, Fuller moved to San Francisco. While he worked various odd jobs around the Bay Area, he played on street corners and parties.

Fuller's musical career didn't properly begin until the early '50s, when he decided to become a professional musician -- he was 55 years old at the time. Performing as a one-man band, he began to get spots on local television shows and nightclubs. However, Fuller's career didn't take off until 1954, when he wrote "San Francisco Bay Blues." The song helped him land a record contract with the independent Cavalier label, and in 1955 he recorded his first album, Folk Blues: Working on the Railroad with Jesse Fuller. The album was a success and soon he was making records for a variety of labels, including Good Time Jazz and Prestige.

In the late '50s and early '60s Jesse Fuller became one of the key figures of the blues revival, helping bring the music to a new, younger audience. Throughout the '60s and '70s he toured America and Europe, appearing at numerous blues and folk festivals, as well as countless coffeehouse gigs across the U.S. Fuller continued performing and recording until his death in 1976. ---Jim O'Neal, almusic.com

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