LITTLE FREDDIE KING
YOU MADE MY NIGHT
MADEWRIGHT RECORDS MWR 72
HOBO–CAN’T DO NOTHING BABE–TOUGH FROG–BUS STATION–BABY PLEASE DON’T GO–CHICKEN DANCE–BIG BOSS MAN–WANG DANG DOODLE–STANDING AT THE DOOR–HELLO JOSEPHINE–SING SANG SUNG
Little Freddie King is one of the last links to a group of black bluesmen who, rather than migrate northward to Chicago and Detroit, went south down to New Orleans. Freddie’s sound was borne of the juke joints in Mississippi, with that Big Easy undercurrent in all his blues. His latest release for MadeWright Records was recorded live at the “World-Famous D B A Music Club” in New Orleans, and is done as both a shout-out and a thank-you to all his fans everywhere. Yep—“You Made My Night” is as raw, raucous, and as much fun as you’d imagine. The home-court fans are stoked, and their energy plays right into Freddie’s wheelhouse. He mixes his own originals with some of his favorites over these eleven cuts.
The party starts with one of those originals, which, one could say, was Freddie’s autobiography. It recalls his younger days, “when I first started to Hobo,” augmented by Freddie’s guitar and a backing harp. “Tough Frog” rides the blinds of that “endless boogie,” while he and the crowd have a lotta fun with the chicken-scratch guitar that aptly accompanies the barnyard hustle of the “Chicken Dance.” He draws from many influences on “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Baby Please Don’t Go,” and “Josephine,” before closing the set with a rollicking instrumental, “Sing Sang Sung.”
Our favorite was easy. A spoken intro gives way to “Bus Station,” where his “main squeeze” leaves him sittin’ at that ‘Hound station with no lover in sight!
Little Freddie King is a cousin to Lightnin’ Hopkins, and those raw, powerful blues mixed with everyday emotions are what the crowd came for. They got a hearty dose, too, with “You Made My Night!” Until next time…Sheryl and Don Crow, The Nashville Blues Society.
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