Crawling Up A Hill: A Journey Through The British Blues Boom 1966-71

Cherry Reds Grapefruit imprint is a reissue label that tends to devote itself to issuing high-quality single-artist career anthologies, rare albums, and various overviews of segments in British popular music circa 1965-1974. Crawling Up a Hill: A Journey Through the British Blues Boom 1966-71, asserts that the U.K. explosion ran concurrently with the countrys emergent psych and garage scenes. Thats true, but it was less formal and more primal. It derived its inspiration from pre- and post-war American bluesmen including Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters, as well as from the dying British jump R&B scene established by Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, Long John Baldry, Cyril Davies, etc. John Mayall was getting his Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton to the charts as well, Duster Bennet was hanging around with Peter Green, and artists such as Jo-Ann Kelly, Mike Cooper, and Ian A. Anderson were reveling in country blues. While there have been many British blues anthologies, the vast majority tend to be single-label projects rather than scene-wide curatorial efforts. This three-disc, 56-track box is the first attempt at a comprehensive overview. On disc one, the Bluesbreakers are represented by Willie Dixons and Otis Rushs steamy, raw, All Your Love. The previously unissued title track is offered by with sass and verve by then-new and always unheralded Zany Woodruff Organization (who later hosted guitarist Allan Holdsworth). Tracks by Bond, Jeff Beck, Love Sculpture, and early Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, and the Deviants round it out. But there are surprises: Duster Bennetts demo for Jumping at Shadows, made immortal by Fleetwood Mac, and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band delivering a scorching, humorous, barroom strutter called Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? There is a smoldering Korner jam here too, titled Operator, with a very young Robert Plant on vocals. Disc two contains a smoking acoustic version of Death Letter Blues by Mike Cooper, as well as Its You I Miss, by the Christine Perfect Band (aka Fleetwood Macs Christine McVie), the swampy, modal blues-rock of Levee Camp Moan on I Just Cant Keep from Crying, Tastes Blister on the Moon, revealing Rory Gallaghers early guitar genius, and tracks by Blodwyn Pig and Chicken Shack, as well as a host of obscurities including Quiet Melons rarity Diamond Joe, featuring the pre-Faces Ronnie Wood, Kenny Jones, Rod Stewart, Ian McLagan, and Ronnie Lane. The final disc includes a scorching, live, A Hard Way to Go by Savoy Brown (with Chris Youlden), Stone the Crows Raining in Your Heart, the Edgar Broughton Bands Old Gopher, Skid Rows The Man Who Never Was, an early example of dual-lead proto-metal blues with guitarist Gary Moore (Phil Lynott was their original vocalist, but not here), and Status Quos early boogie exercise Railroad, with obscure numbers by Linda Hoyle (a rousing Mr. Backlash), a ragged Road Runner by Stack Waddy, and a rare live take of Im a Man, by the pre-pop Yardbirds. The set is adorned with copious, authoritative liner notes by compilation producer David Wells, and contains wonderful photos and brilliant sound. Crawling Up a Hill is essentially the definitive British blues compilation. Its amazing cross-licensing and skillful presentation leave very little out, yet covers all major and most minor artists on the scene with careful attention paid to stylistic variation. ~ Thom Jurek