Lousiana Red & The City Blues Connection World On Fire (CD)

(AAA Culture) 11 tracks

Louisiana Red, the living blues legend, is now making his presence felt in the big city sound of our time. The best and most important black blues artist (Clapton about Red) rocks with a shot of rhythm & blues that you think here is the fusion of Stones, Animals, Blues Band and all those who have nibbled from the wells of the blues at work. But it is still authentic, still Red, the man with the most cinematic biography in the history of pop music.

He was born Iverson Minter in Alabama. His mother died a week after his birth, his father was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan when Red was nine years old (note AAA Culture GmbH: more recent sources speak of five years). He lived in orphanages for three years, then with his grandmother in Pennsylvania. He met Muddy Waters, this encounter never left his mind. He wanted to become a musician, no matter what the cost. As a street musician he couldn't even earn his daily bread. He joined a youth gang to survive: During a burglary he was arrested, then sentenced to hard labor. He then spent time in the army as a paratrooper in Korea. Red is still proud of his dishonorable discharge today. He spent years crisscrossing the U.S., working in steel mills, on the railroad, in cotton fields, and making music, first on the road, then in clubs. His first recordings were made under pseudonyms like Rocky Fuller, Crying Red, Rocking Red or Playboy Fuller. Then he played with many greats of the blues such as John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed. Whether it was the shot of Indian blood or his social commitment that gave him the nickname Red is no longer clear. In any case, he was in the Black Muslim movement in the sixties, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Soon after, Red's wife died - he never wanted to play music again. It wasn't until two years later that his friends brought him back to the blues. Again, he could be heard on tours and festivals, among others with Albert King, Rory Gallagher, Eric Burdon and Johnny Winter. Red also became increasingly well known in Europe, not least through the Montreux Jazz Festival, the American Folk Blues Festivals and his commitment to peace. He was signed alongside Eric Burdon for the film Comeback. He received the W.C. Handy Award as best traditional male artist in 1983, and in 1984 B.B. King wanted him next to him at the Montreux Festival.
The themes of the album "World On Fire" come from Red's life. There's the evocative, almost gospel yet aggressively rocking title track that warns of nuclear fire, delivered by Red with uninhibited emotionality. "When I Was A Boy" tells of time spent in the cotton fields in country honk style, "Mississippi Girl" and "Voodoo Woman" represent the Love Songs, but wilder than usual on Louisiana Red. "For My Friend" is a reminiscence of Bo Diddley in hand jive style, "Soul Food" shows Red's old love for soul music. And besides all the "babies oft he blues" (Red) like rhythm and blues, soul and rock also the authentic stuff itself, e.g. in "Suffering". The finale is an adaptation of an old gospel, "On My Way To The Kingdom Land." Many tracks were recorded virtually live, often Red refusing to play a track twice or record "overdubs." The directness of expression was more important to him. A difficult way to work, but "The City Blues Connection" was the right partner. After the sessions at Hamburg's Volksparkstudio, the usually reserved Red commented, "They are better than any band I had before, even in Chicag