G.L. Crockett

Listen/Download – G.L. Crockett – Every Hour, Every Day MP3

Greetings all.

I hope that the new week finds you all well.

The record you see before you this fine day is something I picked up at a record show a long time ago, thanks to the presence of ‘It’s a Man Down There’, a Top 10 R&B hit in 1965 and an iteration of the Sonny Boy Williamson song ‘One Way Out’ that was redone to great success by the Allman Brothers a few years later.

While that particular track is a very groovy, very mellow Jimmy Reed-esque number with that juke joint drive, it is the flipside of the 45 that we gather to discuss.

‘Every Hour, Every Day’ is one of those records, like Tommy Tucker’s ‘Long Tall Shorty’ that takes a little time before it hits its stride, but when it does it is something else indeed.

‘Every Hour, Every Day’, which makes the most of a spare, almost rudimentary backing and rough hewn (very live sounding) production almost sounds like it’s being cranked to life like an old jalopy, but when it gets rolling it is a thing of beauty.

G.L. Crockett’s history is short, and comes to a sudden end a few years after his very short discography. He came to Chicago from Mississippi, and apparently had himself a hard-driving/hard drinking lifestyle, and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1967.

‘Every Hour, Every Day’ resides in the rarified zone where blues, R&B and soul dwell together, never settling firmly in any of them, yet transcending all of them.

Though the production style is similar to the A side, the feel of the record is marked by an unusual beauty. The backing vocals (sounding like one bass and one falsetto) complement Crockett’s voice which comes across like a very fine grade of sandpaper. The band, guitar, bass, drums and a very prominent tambourine, is stellar and the combination of instruments and voice is very nearly hypnotic.

I can imagine you might be tempted to slip this into a mid-tempo set, but I think that everyone would eventually stop dancing so they could concentrate on the music.

I think you’ll find yourself giving this one repeated listens.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

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