BO CARTER: COMPLETE RECORDED WORKS, VOL. 5 (1938-1940)
1) Let's Get Drunk Again; 2) Some
Day; 3) Old Devil; 4) Country Fool; 5) Santa Claus; 6) Be My Salty Dog; 7) Five
Dollar Bill; 8) Ways Like A Crawfish; 9) Brown-Skin Woman; 10) Lucille,
Lucille; 11) The Country Farm Blues; 12) Border Of New Mexico Blues; 13)
Arrangement For Me Blues; 14) Lock The Lock; 15) Trouble, Oh Trouble; 16) Baby
Ruth; 17) My Baby; 18) Policy Blues; 19) Tush Hog Blues; 20) My Little Mind;
21) Honey; 22) What You Want Your Daddy To Do.
At some time in the mid- or late 1930s, Bo
Carter is reported to have become Blind Bo Carter; and, although the blindness
factor never prevented many of his competitors to find and hold on to success,
for Bo it was one of the factors that contributed to the decline of his career
— probably coupled with other reasons, of course, such as obligatory alcohol
abuse and the general decline in popularity of acoustic blues. As late as 1940,
he was still recording at his usual rate for the Bluebird label, but then the
recordings stop abruptly, and for the next twenty-four years right until his
death in 1964, there is no information on any subsequent recording activities.
Whether it was the blindness or other personal
troubles haunting him at the time, recordings from these two last years are not
much fun: once again, Bo reverts to «generic» blues, leaving behind most of his
colorful double entendres. Many of these tunes are, in fact, recorded in the
Robert Johnson vein: it wouldn't be surprising to learn that Bo caught wind of
Robert's death, and tried to recast himself as Johnson's successor — at the
very least, some of these tracks so deliberately try to copy Johnson's melodies
and moods (e. g. ʽBorder Of New Mexico Bluesʼ rewrites ʽSweet Home Chicagoʼ)
that a coincidence is unthinkable.
Not that this works as anything other than a
curio: Bo's vocals do not have the faintest trace of Johnson's insecurity /
vulnerability, and his playing, although, perhaps, at this point not any less
complex per se than Johnson's, is nowhere near his choppy, aggressive style.
Robert Johnson was, as far as we can tell, a possessed man; Bo Carter was just
an agreeable country sleazeball.
Anyway, the only track on this last volume that
stands out at least a little is ʽLet's Get Drunk Againʼ, because Bo did
relatively few «drinking songs» in his career, and for this one, adopted his
best «crooner / yodeller» pose and even thought of an original guitar flourish.
Another track that could have been a
standout is ʽOld Devil Bluesʼ, quite an ancient folk standard with some
impressive finger-flashing picking — except it also fits in the «why can't I be
like Robert?» category and inevitably loses out in the competition due to
lackluster singing.
All in all, once you take all the five volumes
into consideration, the final verdict is obvious — pick ten to twelve of the
man's riskiest songs about wieners, cushions, biscuits, and pig meat, throw in
two or three «serious» exercises for good measure, and you got yourself more of
The Bo Carter Experience than you'll ever need. Maybe if the old man actually knew his records would be collected,
remastered, and reissued long past his glory days, he would bother assigning
them a little more individuality. Then again, he probably wouldn't give a damn
anyway, as long as the public kept buying the stuff.
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