885513025326

Wicked Grin - Live

John Hammond & The Wicked Grin Band

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Format: 2CD

Cat No: MIG02532

Release Date:  04 February 2022

Label:  Mig Music

Packaging Type:  Digipak

No of Units:  2

Barcode:  885513025326

Genres:  Blues  Rock  

  • Description

    "John is a great force of nature," enthused Tom Waits after he produced Hammond's 2001 album Wicked Grin, which almost entirely consisted of interpretations of Waits compositions - "I don't know anybody that can play guitar like that except guys that are old enough to be his grandfather. And for a writer it's flattering to have someone like John do your songs. He has invaluable experience and finesse. He makes me sound good."



    On "Wicked Grin" John Hammond was accompanied by a small group of musicians, all of whom had previously worked with Waits. Most of these musicians subsequently gigged the album with Hammond but by the time of the Bremen gig that comprises "Wicked Grin – Live" in 2002, the line-up consisted of guitarist Frank Carillo, bassist Marty Ballou and drummer Stephen Hodges.



    All the songs are extraordinary. Here are compelling and surreal despatches from America's demi-monde, with the songs peopled by billiard-playing midgets, blind firemen, drunks, junkies, losers, inadequates, cheating women and hobos with Runyonesque names like Slaughterhouse Joe, Jack The Cutter, Little Joe from Kokomo, Jimmy The Harp and The 44 Kid.



    Hammond has always regarded "Wicked Grin" as a career highlight. But if the album is a landmark in his recording career, it is surely equally true, on the evidence of "Wicked Grin – Live", that the gigs he played in support of it were amongst the most remarkable of his glorious, ongoing, six decade career as a travelling bluesman.

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. 2:19
      • 2. Clap Hands
      • 3. Heartattack And Vine
      • 4. Til The Money Runs Out
      • 5. Gun Street Girl
      • 6. Fish In The Jailhouse
      • 7. Shore Leave
      • 8. Gin Soaked Boy
      • 9. Get Behind The Mule
      • 10. Murder In The Red Barn

      Disc 2

      • 1. Big Black Mariah
      • 2. Jockey Full Of Bourbon
      • 3. Fannin' Street
      • 4. 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six
      • 5. Low Side Of The Road
      • 6. Buzz Fledderjohn
      • 7. I Know I've Been Changed
      • 8. Cold Water