Me and Mr. Johnson is a wonderful ode to Johnson and Clapton tackles it with the same perceptive professionalism as a poet laureate would a glorifying couplet to his/her benefactor.
Employing both electric and acoustic guitars to capture the essence of Johnson's timeless labors, Clapton soars through When You Got a Good Friend, Little Queen of Spades, Me and the Devil Blues and a dozen other Johnson classics.
The backing band reads like a "who's who" of the music
business and boasts Steve Gadd on drums, Nathan East on bass and Billy Preston on keyboards. The combo is tight and fluid throughout and the accompaniment enhances both Clapton's faultless performance and the fantastic material they are all working with. It makes Me and Mr. Johnson an album true blues aficionados would not want to be without.
The Housemartins
Best of ....
Go! Discs
Formed at a time when bands like The Smiths and the Jesus and Mary Chain were filling the UK pop charts with moroseness, the Housemartins' well-balanced simple happy-go-lucky melodies and humorous lyrics were a breath of fresh air.
The band may have released only two albums in its short four-year life span, but its dance friendly harmonies sound as fresh today as they did nearly 20 years ago.
Featuring a selection of some of the band's best tunes, Best of the Housemartins -- which is also available on DVD -- is not as extensive at 1988's whopping 24 track Now That's What I Call Quite Good!, but it still gives listeners a good overview of some of the band's finest moments.
The album kicks in, predictably enough, with the band's dance-friendly chart topper, Happy Hour. The number's pleasing riffs and straightforward pop-jangle will have listeners familiar with the band cranking up the volume.
The CD also includes the edgy guitar and more indie sounding Five Get Over-Excited, the band's wonderfully weepy a cappella version of the Isley Brothers' Caravan of Love and the slow soulful anti-urbanization ode, Build. At a mere 14 tracks long the CD is far too short, however, to do the musical smarts of the revered Housemartins true justice.
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