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Weepin' Willie
At Last, On Time
By Steven R. Rochlin
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Vinyl:
During Stereophile's Hi-Fi '99 show Analogue Productions gave an enormously enjoyable concert on Saturday night to a standing room only capacity crowd. We are talking one of those great R&B shows you only experience once, maybe twice in your lifetime. Analogue Productions is known to have a huge stash of great musicians. One of them is Weepin' Willie who is a Boston musician just like Mighty Sam McClain. What is truly sad is that major labels have been dropping the ball on the exceptionally great musicians over the past ten years or so. Now bands like Spice Girls and "Boy Toy" groups seem to be everywhere while real music gets left to the independent labels. If it wasn't for these indie labels that have their own recording studio like Analogue Productions, we would possibly be doomed to enjoy only Menudo has-beens, Back Street Boys, and another-chick-singer-that-sounds-like Jewel/Morrisette/K.D. Lang. Not that this is bad mind you, though when will the true musical progress be allowed to shine though? The major labels have known for years they are falling behind. This is also possibly why the MP3 format is gaining ground too, but that's another article.
Back to the music at hand, Weepin' Willie At Last, On Time is Willie's first album. Too bad it took until he is the age of 70 for any label to record his deep rooted soulful talents. The G-ds smiled down from the heavens and allowed the label in question to be one which cares about the music. Specifically, Analogue Productions, which has long been known for making available great music on top-quality 180gm vinyl and gold CDs. Reviewed here on very quiet, flat vinyl it is as though someone upstairs in the clouds personally delivered forth this album to my doorstep. While Weepin' Willie is extremely talented rhythm and Blues (R&B) vocalist in and of himself, also add Sam McClain's great voice on a few tunes, Jimmy D. Lane's highly applauded guitar styling another... In the end this is another must have album for R&B music lovers worldwide!
The first song on the album is titled "Love Call" and starts off with some tasty guitar licks for a bit and then you get that great full-scale glory of Weepin' Willie vocals. The second song is the perennial fave "Fever" and also adds the vocal talents of Susan Tedeschi. Hey, i never heard of her either. Another example of how the Big 5 labels have let us down. Add in great tenor sax played by Chuck Langford, classic Hammond B organ playing by George PapaGeorge and it is an all out fever in and of itself not to be missed!
Other great R&B tunes like "Big Mary's House", "Dirty Old Man", and "Let the Good Times Roll" are just part of this eleven song vinyl album which easily finds a place in any music lovers library. Don't expect some minimal recording two microphone technique. What you get is the type of playing that, as said in the Blues Brothers movie, can turn goat's milk into gasoline. Weepin' Willie's At Last, On Time is quite possibly the best R&B album of 1999. Three cheers for the new Blue Heaven Studios and Analogue Productions!
Enjoyment: 95
Sound Quality: 85
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