The nineteen tracks on Messin' Around Blues show the songs are all pretty much interchangeable. The differences between them are so minimal that you could probably get away with switching the titles around and very few people would notice the difference. Each song follows the same pattern, melodically and rhythmically, with the only variations being the difference between the boogie bass line used on songs like "Farm House Blues" and the earlier mentioned "Black Gal Made It Thunder". But to be honest, unless I had read that in the liner notes I don't know if I could have told you the difference.
That being said, Blythe's playing is such that you don't really mind. It says a lot for the quality of the original recordings, and the skill of those involved with the re-recording, that I was able to discern how good a player he was. There's a spirited nature to the tracks that you don't normally hear on older piano recordings, and you can easily picture him siting at his piano having a great time making these records. It's fun to try and imagine them being played against the noisy backdrop of a workingman's bar on a Friday night on the South Side of Chicago. Doing that also makes it easier to understand why the melody is so simple and the chords are played so emphatically. You try being heard over a bar crowd in the days before amplification, and you'd end up developing a style that was easy for people to hear and enjoy.
Jimmy Blythe Messin' Around Blues may not be what most of us consider the blues anymore today, and suffers a little for the repetitive nature of the music. But for occasional dipping into and listening, the music is a lot of fun. As a historical record of an era, this is a valuable disc, that its also a good listen is a bonus you don't often get on recordings of this type.
Article comments
1 - Anonymous
I'm positive that Ed Sprankle did not appreciate being called "Mr. Sparkles" in this article.