Pregled posta

The fourth volume of the “Blues At Home” Collection, this CD features an underrated but outstanding piano blues musician, John Williams (a.k.a. Memphis Piano Red). He was born an albino in Germantown, Tennessee, in 1904 in a family with 11 children, six of whom played musical instruments. He learned how to play piano at the age of 13 from one of his sisters and was influenced by local Germantown piano blues players. In 1930 he moved to Memphis where he started his musical activity, playing often in Beale Street bars. He hoboed and rode freight trains for more than 25 years, visiting and sojourning in various states, developing a solid barrelhouse piano technique coupled with strong, heartfelt singing. He never had the chance to record 78 rpm race records, and was discovered in the late '60s during blues revival times. Only a limited number of examples of his music have ever been released; and in most of that material, the piano is out of tune. This CD has been recorded during two long sessions held in 1972 and 1978 at his private home in Memphis, Tennessee, using well-tuned pianos. All tracks have been fully digitally remastered in 2013 from the original tapes. ~Giambattista Marcucci