Release Date: July 5, 2013.
Series: The Sun Years, Plus
Recording Time: 88 minutes.
Recording Date: November 29, 1951.
Release Info: BCD 16939 AH, CD, Compilation.
Juke Box Boogie is entirely too modern a title for Doctor Ross, a Mississippi bluesman who often just bashed out a rhythm on his guitar while he wailed away on his harp. He was often recorded with just his guitar and harmonica in tow, but during his sessions for Sun there were times when he was augmented by a drummer and another guitarist, or perhaps a guy on washboard, and as the '50s became the '60s, he found himself up in Detroit playing with a full band. These sessions amount to the "Plus" on Bear Family's Juke Box Boogie: The Sun Years, Plus, a 32-track collection capturing all of his sides for Sun (including alternates and unreleased cuts), the single he made for Chess in 1951, and sides that showed up on Fortune and Hi-Q in the '60s. This means the disc covers a wide span of time, something close to 15 years (it's unclear when the final Fortune single was cut but it was somewhere between 1965 and 1970), but most of this dates from the '50s and most of it finds him rocking away all by his lonesome, or something pretty close to it. Which is a roundabout way of saying this is some pretty primitive blues, but the exciting thing about it is that it's bare-bones boogie with its heart in the city, not country: it's the missing link between early Lightnin' Hopkins and Jimmy Reed. Over the long haul, the primitivism of Doctor Ross can be a bit much -- the added instrumentation of his Detroit sides doesn't dilute the blues, but rather comes as a welcome bit of color -- but this music wasn't meant to be listened to in an hourlong blast, it was meant to be doled out side by side, and if you approach Juke Box Boogie in that fashion, there is plenty of rip-roaring electrified blues boogie to be enjoyed here. ~ by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Credits: Artwork – Retrograph; Illustration, Image Editor (Photo Scans) – Victor Pearlin; Illustration, Photography By – Axel Küstner, Steve LaVere; Image Editor (Photo Restoration) – Andreas Merck, Este; Producer – Isaiah Ross, Sam Phillips; Reissue Producer, Liner Notes (Discography), Illustration, Photography By – Martin Hawkins; Transferred By (Disc /Metalpart Transfer) – Christian Zwarg; Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar, Drums – Doctor Ross.
Tracklist:
- 01 ...... Doctor Ross Boogie (2:37)
- 02 ...... Country Clown (2:29)
- 03 ...... Come Back Baby (2:48)
- 04 ...... Chicago Breakdown (2:52)
- 05 ...... The Boogie Disease (2:32)
- 06 ...... Juke Box Boogie (2:29)
- 07 ...... Cat Squirrel (Mississippi Blues) (2:20)
- 08 ...... Shake A-My Hand (2:45)
- 09 ...... Little Soldier Boy (2:47)
- 10 ...... Shake 'Em On Down (2:45)
- 11 ...... Polly Put The Kettle On (2:58)
- 12 ...... Down South Blues (2:56)
- 13 ...... My Be Bop Gal (2:37)
- 14 ...... Texas Hop (2:41)
- 15 ...... Deep Down In The Ground (2:44)
- 16 ...... Turkey Bakin' Woman (2:29)
- 17 ...... 1953 Jump (1:33)
- 18 ...... Doctor Ross Boogie (2:22)
- 19 ...... Downtown Boogie (2:21)
- 20 ...... Feel So Sad (2:23)
- 21 ...... Going To The River (3:25)
- 22 ...... Good Thing Blues (4:45)
- 23 ...... Industrial Boogie (2:35)
- 24 ...... Thirty-Two Twenty (2:42)
- 25 ...... Cat Squirrel (Mississippi Blues) (2:19)
- 26 ...... The Sunnyland (2:34)
- 27 ...... Cannonball (2:54)
- 28 ...... Numbers Blues (2:15)
- 29 ...... Call The Doctor (3:20)
- 30 ...... New York Breakdown (2:57)
- 31 ...... I'd Rather Be A Young Woman's Baby (Than An Old Girl's Slave) (2:37)
- 32 ...... Sugar Mama (3:09)
Original Sun, Chess, DIR, Fortune, Hi-Q Recordings.