FRANK FROST with THE NIGHT HAWKS - Hey Boss Man!
(Bear Family, Germany) LP It's great to see Bear Family back in the vinyl game with this high quality, 180gm, direct metal mastered repro of this unheralded Blues classic, origi-nally released on Philips International in 1962. Arkansas-born Frank Frost was a singer, guitarist and harp player who got his start in the Tate '50s backing Sonny Boy Williamson. In 1959 he and drummer Sam Carr split from Sonny Boy to form their own group, the Night Hawks, along with guitarist Big Jack Johnson. The group caught the atten-tion of Sam Phillips, who Look them into the studio where they proceeded to lay down this absolutely cooking set. The album's title refers to Frost's version of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man," a jumping, uptempo arrange-ment which, for the duration of the song at least, Frost somehow makes his own. Reed's influence can also be heard on numbers like "Jelly Roll King," "Baby You're So Kind" and "So Tired of Living By Myself." With its keening tone and mischievous phras-ing, Frost's harp playing is especially redolent of Reed's style. Other numbers, like the moody, wailing "Everything's Alright" and "Gonna Make You Mine," pay tribute to the Howlin' Wolf sound—inevitable perhaps, given Phillips' history with Wolf—while on the brooding, floor-
board stomping "Just Go On Horne" Frank gives a respectful nod in John Lee Hooker's direction. However. while Frost may have sometimes worn his influences on his sleeve, he never failed to imbue every number with his own personality, making Hey Boss Man! the kind of LP you're gonna re-turn to again and again. This reissue reproduces all the origi-nal cover art, and also sneaks on a bonus song, "Crawlback," which ap-peared on a Phillips International 45 but was missing froin the original LP (MS)
