Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Dirty Work at the Crossroads 1947-1953

I've been looking for a good compilation of this gentlemen's early work for quite a while and finally

found this great one - love this man's guitar blues from this era!

While Clarence was (he died in 2005) an accomplished musician on numerous instruments - he loved country music and played fiddle from a young age, along with mandolin, viola, harmonica and drums. But his bluesy guitar playing is mighty exceptional and here he shows his love for performers who came before him, such as Louis Jordan and especially T-Bone Walker, which his style emulates to some extent (just listen to "Didn't Reach My Goal").

Everything on this disc is pretty darn stellar, and it includes his hits, such as "Okie Dokie Stomp", "My Time is Expensive", "Boogie Rambler". "Just Before Dawn" and the title cut (exceptional singing and playing on this one!).

The sound is based around the combination of horns'n'guitar - there's frantic instrumental jumpers like "Atomic Energy" and "Boogie Uproar", cool guitar/sax trade-offs in"Mary is Fine", slow blues in "Two O'Clock in the Morning" and the sizzlin' "Win With Me Baby", r'n'b ravers like "I Live My LIfe" and some damn terrific guitar playing throughout!

Really a superior comp - a new fave acquisition!