Page 54 - BiTS_10_OCTOBER_2023

Clydie King—Direct Me—Independant

Clydie King, who died in 2019, was best known as a backing
vocalist (anyone remember Humble Pie?) and for her work with
Bob Dylan. This album was originally released in 1970 (?????) at

a time when some areas of rock and soul were perhaps not too far
apart. Kind of relevant to this release is Merry Clayton’s
contribution to The Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’, or even closer,
the late Tina Turner’s work with Ike around this time.

Tina is a strong reference point for the album opener, originally
by Otis Redding, with Clydie’s vocal getting sassier as the song
progresses, and the soulful ‘Ain’t My Stuff Good Enough’, also has plenty of Tina in the vocal. She
then tackles a ballad, ‘First Time, Last Time’, with some very “clean” singing, reminding the
listener that although she had recorded plenty of R’n’B material prior to this album, she was also
not averse to trying her hand at a pop song. A later track, ‘B Minor’, reminds me of Carly Simon!

‘Never Like This Before’ owes a lot musically to classic James Brown, whilst ‘You Can’t Go On
Without Love’ is a blues ballad, with a neat guitar break and shades of Ray Charles maybe, before
‘’Bout Love’ leans towards uptempo Northern soul. ‘There’s Long Road Ahead’ (sic) is a fine slab
of classic soul, and Barrett Strong’s ‘You Need Love Like I Do, Don’t You?’ is the kind of thing
many female blues singers record these days. It’s strange to think that The Beatles track, ‘The
Long And Winding Road’, was a relatively new track when Clydie recorded her soulful,
string-laden version, bringing this fine album to a close.

Norman Darwen

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Misty Blues—Tell Me Who You Are : A Live Tribute to Odetta
—Guitar One

(www.mistybluesband.com)

I remember very clearly as a very young child always being
pleased to hear ‘There’s A Hole In My Bucket’ on BBC radio in the
afternoon. It was repetitious and humorous. Many years later I
discovered it was a duet between Harry Belafonte and Odetta. I
knew Mr. Belafonte had recorded ‘Day O’, but Odetta was just a
name I saw occasionally in the blues racks of larger record shops,
and didn’t seem to be very interesting, compared to Albert or
Freddy King, for example. Over the years though, I discovered
more about her – Louisiana Red talking to me about her in the 80s also helped - and I grew to
appreciate her music more as I discovered more about her and her activism.

Gina Coleman did actually meet Odetta and appreciates her music – that is obvious from this
lovely, all-acoustic live tribute album with her own band, Misty Blues, and guests. It is almost a
crash course in the early years of the blues revival – especially the ‘folk-blues’ - as there are
impassioned a capella spirituals, times when Misty Blues assume an almost trad jazz revival
identity (think Chris Barber maybe), a ‘Hit Or Miss’ with hints of early 60s soul-jazz and the
tear-‘em-up gospel of the finale, ‘This Little Light Of Mine’.