The Blues Brothers were an act that hired really good players to back them up, but Eddie was a singer and a musician who played with a band, wrote some of the songs they performed, and probably arranged all of them. By the time he recorded this album he'd been playing Jazz and Blues for over thirty years with some of the most amazing musicians in the world and it shows.
So many modern singers almost have to scream to convey emotion, or they make it seem like it's such an effort to get a line out, they're contorting it. Eddie just opens his mouth and the music comes out real and raw. You know there is no artifice in that voice or that man and you are listening to the genuine article if there ever was one.
The really good thing about this disc is the liner notes. They give you all sorts of information about Eddie's history and the background of the music. Unfortunately they do miss out on telling you who is playing what. I got that information from a press kit. The other important piece of information that's left out of the liner notes, but comes with the press stuff, is how Eddie Cleanhead Vinson's head became Clean. It seems it involved an accident with some lye-based hair straightener.
All you really need to know about Eddie Cleanhead Vinson is contained on the ten tracks of this disc. I don't know how his Kidney Stew tastes, but I do know Kidney Stew Is Fine is probably one of the best collections of good time Blues music I've ever heard.
Article comments