CD - Charles Brown: Cryin' Mercy

Brown's take on the blues provokes quite a range of opinion, even, apparently, amongst his blues peers. One particular story has a Brown album being played at a party at which John Lee Hooker was present. When he heard what was being played Hooker was said to remark "Who put that shit on?". Which, whilst perhaps understandable, since Hooker's tough blues and Brown's mellow offerings couldn't be further removed, is still perhaps a little harsh on the singer - pianist  

This particular 2 CD release has 55 tracks taken from Brown's tenure on the Aladdin label between 1944 and 1956. Presented chronologically, they add up to a significant body of work and would be a welcome addition to any lover of piano based and relatively mellow blues, with a heavy focus on the blues ballad form. There's the early and still classic recording of 'Drifting Blues' (1945), along with other evergreens such as 'Hard Times', Trouble Blues', 'Black Night' and 'Homesick Blues', all of which found their way into the Billboard top ten. There's also the Charles Brown take on a number of standards, including 'How high The Moon', 'PS. I Love You' and 'Until The Real Thing Comes Along'. No 'Merry Christmas Baby', but just about everything else you would want to hear is present and correct.
As usual the re-mastering is very good. Most of the hiss and crackles to be found on other Brown compilations of the same material have been handled very well, although in doing so, I wonder if perhaps a couple of tracks (including 'Drifting Blues') have lost a little of their dynamic range. Overall the recordings sound great, but the brightness of the odd track appears to have been sacrificed to clean up the sound. However, it's still the best remastered compilation I have yet to hear.

This kind of laid-back blues clearly didn't appeal to John Lee! But for anyone who appreciates the West Coast 'cool blues' sound, you won't find much better than this collection of tracks from one of the sound's pioneers.

July 2006