Little Jr Parker

[danasgoodstuff]

I'm currently annotating a mix tape I made for my brother - a kinda Jr Parker in context kinda thing, and would welcome any observations you might have on this fine singer-harpist.

[Dan Gould]

For me, one of the absolute greatest blues/R&B singers of all. I'm still glad that, for one reason or another (I think the price was right), I grabbed three LPs at one time, even though I had never heard him at the time. I was hooked from the moment the needle hit the groove on the first LP. I'm partial to the Duke material first but it's all good (until the end with those Capitol recordings).

Ride with Me Baby is an excellent comp put out in 2012 that covers all of his recordings from 1952 to 1961. I'd love to see a second volume in the future.

Sometimes Tomorrow is a fantastic posthumous release of (mostly unissued) Duke singles and some of those I consider among his best recordings ("What Kind of Love" "It Ain't Like That No More"). Always made me hope that there were other 45s that didn't chart and didn't get included on the various "best of" compilations and were equally good, so for a time I habitually searched eBay for Parker 45s and if I didn't have them, or the flip was the hit and I didn't have the B side, I grabbed 'em if the price was right.

So yeah, you could say I'm a Junior Parker nut.

[danasgoodstuff]

Dan- Interesting that you'd never heard of him when you first checked him out. In terms of R&B chart success, he was as big a star as, say, Muddy Waters who certainly has more profile today and whom my brother is kinda fixated on. Not that Muddy's not wonderful, but he's not the whole world, even in blues. Thanks for the rec's, I have just a best of CD of Duke stuff, an LP with a pseudo Guagan cover, some Sun stuff on comp's and a very weird late CD, Beatles and Willie Nelson covers, etc. A complete Duke antho like the Bobby Bland ones would be wonderful.

[Dan Gould]

If you do the LP thing I think a lot of them can be found cheaply (I think I bought the three LPs that started my obsession because they were all $6 a piece, in good enough shape, and I had no idea how to eliminate one or another).

The post-Duke, pre-Capitol years have some highlights too, especially Honey-Drippin' Blues where he went in a soul direction, trying for some hits. And don't miss Jimmy McGriff/Junior Parker on UA, a great live set. Just be prepared for Junior to keep saying "everybody say YEAH!" at the end of every song, several times each.

Down home blues or a smooth uptown R&B, I can never get enough Junior Parker.

[JSngry]

There's a great version of "In The Heat Of The Night" with McGriff on The Dudes Doin' Business on Capitol. The rest of that record...not so much.

[AllenLowe]

as Dan knows I am a big fan of the early Memphis, proto-rockabilly recordings with Pat Hare. I love all the periods of his work, but there is something strange and very new about the Memphis days. And there's a whole rhythm thing which clearly had a big effect on Elvis.

[paul secor]

as Dan knows I am a big fan of the early Memphis, proto-rockabilly recordings with Pat Hare. I love all the periods of his work, but there is something strange and very new about the Memphis days. And there's a whole rhythm thing which clearly had a big effect on Elvis.

Mystery Train

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Junior was really nice. I love the stuff with McGriff but even more I love his LP for Mercury - 'Like it is' - produced by Bobby Robinson (THE Bobby Robinson, that is) with a lovely smooth Memphis band working like Willie Mitchell's or the Mar-Keys arranged by Gene Miller behind him.

MG