Published on Jan 22, 1998
No matter what your opinion on blues music is, you have to admit
that the past twelve months have been tragic for the genre. We’ve
lost, among others, Johhny “Clyde” Copeland, Junior Wells, Fenton
Robinson and Luther Allison. With each passing year, we seem to be
losing more and more of the people who made the genre as special as
it is.
Call Snooky Pryor a survivor. One of the original purveyors of
the harmonica-based blues, Pryor outlived such constituents as
Muddy Waters and Big Walter Horton to achieve his greatest
successes in his golden years. This is evidenced on his latest
album
Mind Your Own Business.
Pryor’s vocal delivery and harp playing are top notch, and at
the age of 76, might be that much more rich with the sound of
wisdom. Backing Pryor is a solid group of musicians, including Gene
Taylor from the Fabulous Thunderbirds on piano, sons Richard and
Earl on guitar and bass… and to me, it’s great to hear Ted
Harvey, who once worked with Hound Dog Taylor, on the drums again!
(Harvey shares the drum chair with James Barnes on this one.)
But it is Derek O’Brien who gets co-star treatment on
Mind Your Own Business with Pryor – and I’m sorry, but I
just wasn’t overly impressed with his lead guitar licks. No, I
wasn’t expecting something along the lines of Eric Clapton, but
there is no spice in O’Brien’s playing that sets it apart from any
other guitar work.
As for the songs themselves,
Mind Your Own Business contains some very good traditional
blues. The E-chord droning of “I’m So Glad” will appeal to some,
though it is not the best performance on the track. That honor is
saved for the title track, “Diggin’ My Potatoes” and “Miss Fanny
Brown”. When Pryor, O’Brien, son Earl on bass and Harvey really get
a rhythm going, it makes you want to get up and dance for joy.
The biggest drawback, however, with the album is that it doesn’t
immediately grow on the listener. It took me a good three or four
listens to this disc before I really could groove to it, and by
that time I was tired of a few songs.
Don’t get me wrong,
Mind Your Own Business is definitely worth your attention,
and Pryor is deserving of all the attention he gets from this
album. His harmonica work speaks volumes for the history of the
blues; he evokes memories of such artists like Sonny Boy Williamson
and, among our living greats, James Cotton, while creating a voice
all his own through the metal-encased reeds.
And as much as one would think that blues is not a happy music
(those of us who know better realize this is wrong),
Mind Your Own Business is a happy album that, if anything,
tries to re-root us into common sense. Hence the album title.
Snooky Pryor is fortunate to be alive to have his work enjoyed
by as many people as possible; we are lucky to still have him
sharing his gifts with us.
Mind Your Own Business is a solid, though slightly flawed,
portrait for us to cherish.