Walter Horton - better known as Big Walter or Walter Shakey Horton or Mumbles or even just Shakey Horton - was a blues harmonica player who is today remembered as one of the greatest harmonica players in the history of the blues. There's a bit of mystery surrounding Horton, but it's probably just due to bad record keeping. He was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi, sometime in 1917. Or maybe it was April 6, 1918. Or maybe it was 1921. At any rate, he was born - sometime and somewhere - and the blues is better for it.
Big Walter was playing the harmonica by the age of five. As a teenager he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he claimed his earliest recordings were done during the late 1920s with the Memphis Jug Band - but there is absolutely no documentation of any kind to prove it and it's likely he made the story up in an effort to establish some blues cred. It is generally accepted he was first recorded in Memphis, backing blues guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on Doyle's recordings for Okeh and Vocalion Records, in 1939. These were mostly acoustic duets, in a style popularized by Sleepy John Estes among others. Horton's own style was not yet fully developed, but it is said by those who have heard these recordings that it was obvious there was definitely something about "that young blues harmonica player". I've not yet heard those recordings. Maybe someday.
Horton stopped playing the harmonica for a living due to poor health and held various jobs outside the music industry during the 1940s. But by the early 1950s, he was playing again and was among the first artists to be recorded by Sam Phillips at Sun Records - well before Elvis walked in the door! He was active in the Chicago blues scene during this time, frequently playing with the Delta musicians who had also moved north, including Robbert Johnson's buddy, Johnny Shines.
This record features Big Walter with Carey Bell, and was recorded in Chicago in 1972 and released on the Alligator label. While many blues aficionados were hoping for a "battle-of-the-harps between two great masters" LP, what they got instead was an LP featuring two great harp masters who had a lot of respect for each other and just wanted to play together. It's not a very competitive record, and while some people were disappointed I was delighted. I love this record, and was first turned onto it while listening to a late night blues radio station (see bonus track).
I love the sound of this record. The vinyl is dead quiet. In fact, it's almost spooky. Big Walter is sitting right in front of me, and Carey is a little to the left. It's easy to tell this record is all analogue, and I say this without any definitive proof. I'm just going by what I'm hearing. Well-recorded analogue records have a way of sounding that surpasses digital, and while it's hard to describe it is definitely something you can hear. I'd actually like to do an A-B comparison between this pressing and a CD reissue. You know, just for fun.
What a great blues record!
Years before it was recorded, when Junior Wells left Muddy Waters' band in 1952, Big Walter replaced him briefly. He continued playing around the Chicago blues scene into the 1960s, a time when blues music was gaining popularity with increasingly white audiences, and made several recordings as a sideman with Shines, Sunnyland Slim and Willie Dixon, among others. He also toured as a backing musician, and performed at blues and folk festivals in the United States and Europe.
In 1977 Horton played on the Muddy Waters album I'm Ready, which was produced by Johnny Winter. He also recorded some sides for Blind Pig Records and accompanied John Lee Hooker in the 1980 Belushi-Ackroyd film, The Blues Brothers. His final recordings were made in 1980, and he succumbed to heart failure a year later, aged just 60. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
Carey Bell Harrington was an American blues harmonica player who played mostly as a sideman for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s before pursuing a solo career of his own. Some of the artists he recorded with include Earl Hooker, Lowell Fulson, Robert Nighthawk, Louisiana Red, Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Dawkins and his son, guitarist Lurrie Bell.
Born in Macon, Mississippi, he was interested in music from a very early age. One of his first influences was jazz saxophonist Louis Jordan. Hearing him made Carey want a saxophone, but his family couldn't afford one and got him a harmonica - sometimes called a a Mississippi saxophone - instead. Bell taught himself how to play by listening to the great blues harmonica players of the day - Big Walter Horton, DeFord Bailey, Little Walter Jacobs and Sonny Boy Williamson (both I and II). At age 13 he joined the blues band his godfather, pianist, Lovie Lee, fronted.
In 1956, Lee persuaded Bell to accompany him to Chicago, and shortly after arriving in the Windy City he went to the Club Zanzibar where Little Walter was appearing. Bell met Walter that night and and more-or-less became his understudy. He tried to earn a living playing blues in Chicago, but having arrived in the windy city at the worst possible time for an unemployed harmonica player he taught himself how to play the electric bass to help land gigs and put food on the table. There was some work for a blues harmonica player, just not enough. But a harp player who could also handle the bottom end …
In the late 1960s Bell performed regularly with guitarists Eddie Taylor and Royal Johnson, playing both harmonica and bass whenever needed. In 1969, he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival and played at the Royal Albert Hall in London, appearing on a live recording of the show.
In 1969 Delmark Records released Bell's debut album, Carey Bell's Blues Harp, and in 1970-71 he played with Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars. He then teamed up with Big Walter Horton and recorded this record for Alligator Records. Almost two decades later he would play on another seminal Alligator release called Harp Attack! that along with Bell featured fellow harpists Junior Wells, James Cotton and Billy Branch. Harp Attack! became a modern blues classic and one of Alligator's best-selling albums.
Bell continued to record albums for Alligator and in 1988 was awarded the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist of the Year. In 2007 Delmark Records released a live set by Bell accompanied by a band that included his son, Lurrie. In May of that year Bell, like Big Walter before him, would succumb to heart failure.
I wish these three musicians had recorded more records during their lifetimes.
Walter Horton - better known as Big Walter or Walter Shakey Horton or Mumbles or even just Shakey Horton - was a blues harmonica player who is today remembered as one of the greatest harmonica players in the history of the blues. There's a bit of mystery surrounding Horton, but it's probably just due to bad record keeping. He was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi, sometime in 1917. Or maybe it was April 6, 1918. Or maybe it was 1921. At any rate, he was born - sometime and somewhere - and the blues is better for it.
Big Walter was playing the harmonica by the age of five. As a teenager he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he claimed his earliest recordings were done during the late 1920s with the Memphis Jug Band - but there is absolutely no documentation of any kind to prove it and it's likely he made the story up in an effort to establish some blues cred. It is generally accepted he was first recorded in Memphis, backing blues guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on Doyle's recordings for Okeh and Vocalion Records, in 1939. These were mostly acoustic duets, in a style popularized by Sleepy John Estes among others. Horton's own style was not yet fully developed, but it is said by those who have heard these recordings that it was obvious there was definitely something about "that young blues harmonica player". I've not yet heard those recordings. Maybe someday.
Horton stopped playing the harmonica for a living due to poor health and held various jobs outside the music industry during the 1940s. But by the early 1950s, he was playing again and was among the first artists to be recorded by Sam Phillips at Sun Records - well before Elvis walked in the door! He was active in the Chicago blues scene during this time, frequently playing with the Delta musicians who had also moved north, including Robbert Johnson's buddy, Johnny Shines.
This record features Big Walter with Carey Bell, and was recorded in Chicago in 1972 and released on the Alligator label. While many blues aficionados were hoping for a "battle-of-the-harps between two great masters" LP, what they got instead was an LP featuring two great harp masters who had a lot of respect for each other and just wanted to play together. It's not a very competitive record, and while some people were disappointed I was delighted. I love this record, and was first turned onto it while listening to a late night blues radio station (see bonus track).
I love the sound of this record. The vinyl is dead quiet. In fact, it's almost spooky. Big Walter is sitting right in front of me, and Carey is a little to the left. It's easy to tell this record is all analogue, and I say this without any definitive proof. I'm just going by what I'm hearing. Well-recorded analogue records have a way of sounding that surpasses digital, and while it's hard to describe it is definitely something you can hear. I'd actually like to do an A-B comparison between this pressing and a CD reissue. You know, just for fun.
What a great blues record!
Years before it was recorded, when Junior Wells left Muddy Waters' band in 1952, Big Walter replaced him briefly. He continued playing around the Chicago blues scene into the 1960s, a time when blues music was gaining popularity with increasingly white audiences, and made several recordings as a sideman with Shines, Sunnyland Slim and Willie Dixon, among others. He also toured as a backing musician, and performed at blues and folk festivals in the United States and Europe.
In 1977 Horton played on the Muddy Waters album I'm Ready, which was produced by Johnny Winter. He also recorded some sides for Blind Pig Records and accompanied John Lee Hooker in the 1980 Belushi-Ackroyd film, The Blues Brothers. His final recordings were made in 1980, and he succumbed to heart failure a year later, aged just 60. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
Carey Bell Harrington was an American blues harmonica player who played mostly as a sideman for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s before pursuing a solo career of his own. Some of the artists he recorded with include Earl Hooker, Lowell Fulson, Robert Nighthawk, Louisiana Red, Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Dawkins and his son, guitarist Lurrie Bell.
Born in Macon, Mississippi, he was interested in music from a very early age. One of his first influences was jazz saxophonist Louis Jordan. Hearing him made Carey want a saxophone, but his family couldn't afford one and got him a harmonica - sometimes called a a Mississippi saxophone - instead. Bell taught himself how to play by listening to the great blues harmonica players of the day - Big Walter Horton, DeFord Bailey, Little Walter Jacobs and Sonny Boy Williamson (both I and II). At age 13 he joined the blues band his godfather, pianist, Lovie Lee, fronted.
In 1956, Lee persuaded Bell to accompany him to Chicago, and shortly after arriving in the Windy City he went to the Club Zanzibar where Little Walter was appearing. Bell met Walter that night and and more-or-less became his understudy. He tried to earn a living playing blues in Chicago, but having arrived in the windy city at the worst possible time for an unemployed harmonica player he taught himself how to play the electric bass to help land gigs and put food on the table. There was some work for a blues harmonica player, just not enough. But a harp player who could also handle the bottom end …
In the late 1960s Bell performed regularly with guitarists Eddie Taylor and Royal Johnson, playing both harmonica and bass whenever needed. In 1969, he toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival and played at the Royal Albert Hall in London, appearing on a live recording of the show.
In 1969 Delmark Records released Bell's debut album, Carey Bell's Blues Harp, and in 1970-71 he played with Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars. He then teamed up with Big Walter Horton and recorded this record for Alligator Records. Almost two decades later he would play on another seminal Alligator release called Harp Attack! that along with Bell featured fellow harpists Junior Wells, James Cotton and Billy Branch. Harp Attack! became a modern blues classic and one of Alligator's best-selling albums.
Bell continued to record albums for Alligator and in 1988 was awarded the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist of the Year. In 2007 Delmark Records released a live set by Bell accompanied by a band that included his son, Lurrie. In May of that year Bell, like Big Walter before him, would succumb to heart failure.
I wish these three musicians had recorded more records during their lifetimes.
The first time I heard of this record I was half asleep. It was about 25 years ago, maybe more. I was drifting off while listening to Saturday Night Blues on CBC, hosted by Holger Peterson. It was probably 11 pm. All of a sudden Holger played a listner request, Trouble In Mind, by Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell, from an album of the same name. It got my attention. I was immediately wide awake, and grabbed a pen and paper - I always have those two items on my night table for situations just like this - and made a note.
Before long I was in a used record store in Toronto, somewhere in Kensington Market, and found a pristine copy of this record. I couldn't believe my luck! I bought it and went home and put it on the turntable. This is blues at its finest. The rrecord opens with a bluesy romp called Have A Good Time, and then slows down a bit for Christine, which features some wonderful guitar-harmonica back-and-forth with underrated blues guitarist, Eddie Taylor. Really nice stuff!
I really like slow blues jams, so one of my favorite tracks from this record is Under The Sun, a great instrumental in the old blues, hot sun-front porch tradition. The interplay between the two harmincas and Taylor's guitar is, in a word, exquisite. It makes me wonder why Taylor, although highly regarded by his peers for his work with Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker, isn't as well known as those greats and never received that level of recognition. The man was an absolute master of the understated blues guitar, although I bet most people reading this have never heard of him. If you're one of them you need to check him out, and you can start right here.
This record probably should have been called Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell and Eddie Taylor, insteasd of just Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell. But it was conceived as a sort of "battle of the two great harmonicas," which it absolutely is not, and it's also odd considering how well the two blowers compliment each other marvelously. But it's the addition of Taylor on guiter that puts this record over the top. It's a must have for any serious blues collector, and it can still be found on the cheap in most used record stores (I don't know who's getting rid of their copies of this record. They probably come from the estates of older people who knew what good music was and whose descendants didn't bother to listen to it).
A reall terrific record from beginning to end.
