The Sky Is Crying: The History of Elmore James by Elmore James (CD, Sep-1997, Bmg/Rca Camden)

Album Features
UPC:	743215237624
Artist:	Elmore James
Format:	CD
Release Year:	1997
Record Label:	Bmg/Rca Camden
Genre:	Blues, Chicago Blues

Track Listing
1. Sky Is Crying
2. Dust My Broom
3. Fine Little Mama
4. Can't Stop Loving You
5. Done Somebody Wrong
6. Rollin & Tumblin
7. I Need You Baby
8. Something Inside Me
9. I'm Worried
10. Early One Morning
11. She Done Moved
12. Strange Angel
13. Anna Lee
14. Stranger Blues
15. Look on Yonder Wall
16. Standing at the Crossroads
17. Baby Please Set a Date
18. Shake Your Money Maker
19. My Bleeding Heart
20. One Way Out
21. Make My Dream Come True
22. Mean Mistreatin Mama

Details
Playing Time:	5 min.
Contributing Artists:	Sonny Boy Williamson, Ike Turner, Willie Dixon, Big Joe Turner
Distributor:	MSI Music Distribution
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Personnel includes: Elmore James (vocals, guitar); Big Joe Turner (vocals); Willie Johnson, Jimmy Spruill, Wayne Bennett, Eddie Taylor, Riff Ruffin (guitar); Ike Turner (guitar, piano); Homesick James (guitar, bass); Sam Myers (harmonica, drums); Sonny Boy Williamson (harmonica); J.T. Brown, Grady Jackson (tenor saxophone); Mark Easton, Paul Williams (baritone saxophone); Sonny Cohn (trumpet); Johnny Jones, Willard McDaniel, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, Johnny Acey, Danny Moore (piano); Willie Dixon, Leonard Ware, Ransom Knowling, Jimmy Richardson, Chuck Hamilton, Sammy Lee Bully, Eddie Taylor (bass); Frock O'Dell, Henry "Sneaky Joe" Harris, Odie Payne, Red Saunders, Fred Below, Jesse Sailes, King Mose, Belton Evans, Johnny Williams (drums).Producers: Bobby Robinson, Lilian McMurry, Ike Turner, The Bihari Brothers.Compilation producers: Robert Palmer, James Austin.Digitally remastered by Bob Fisher.THE SKY IS CRYING: THE HISTORY OF ELMORE JAMES compiles recordings James made between 1951 and 1961 for a variety of labels including the Mississippi-based Trumpet, Chicago-based Chess/Chief as well as Bobby Robinson's Fire/Fury/Enjoy and the Bihari Brother's Flair/Meteor labels.This set includes a 14-page booklet with a discography, black and white photogrpaphs, background information about the sessions by Steve Franz and a biographical essay by Robert Palmer.Rhino's superlative Elmore James retrospective is essential, not only because it brings together 21 of the artist's finest sides, but because it collects those tracks from various periods (1951-1969) and labels (Trumpet, Chess, Flair, Fire, Chief, and Flashback). James's erratic recording history makes a representative one-stop compilation difficult, but from "Dust My Broom," James's signature tune and the set's opener, to "Standing at the Crossroads, " the raw 1960 single that brings the disc to a close, THE SKY IS CRYING serves as both a career overview and a greatest-hits collection.Whether on slow blues (the title track) or boogie-woogie grooves ("Shake Your Moneymaker"), the slide master's slashing technique and feral tenor voice are on full display. James's slide work is justifiably exalted--though there have been slide players more technically advanced, James's wild, wiry leads have indelibly influenced nearly all blues players that followed him. James's singing, too, is ferocious and marked by extraordinary intensity (he has what can be known in the blues as a "crying" voice). This is electric Chicago blues of the first order, and a finer compilation of this blues-guitar master is difficult to imagine.