Review: John Hammond ‘You’re Doin’ Fine:Blues at the Boarding House, June 2 & 3rd, 1973’
By Hal Horowitz
“John Hammond is a living, breathing encyclopedia of the blues in all of its forms,” is just one of the plethora of rich sentences included in the lavish 62-page book accompanying this three disc package. It describes not just Hammond, but the contents of this trio of shows, captured from the titular dates and venue supporting the accolade.
The recordings on ‘You’re Doin’ Fine…’ released Nov. 22, supervised by Owsley “The Bear” Stanley– well known to Grateful Dead enthusiasts as one of the band’s finest sound men—find the now 82, then 31, year old Hammond in prime form.
He is credited as one of the first—if not the first– white musicians to bring genuine, unvarnished, raw blues to a wider (ie:whiter) audience. But Hammond hasn’t received the adulation he deserves for breaking down color barriers and introducing deep, often obscure roots music to the commercial marketplace. His 1963 self-titled Vanguard label debut set the tone for the rest of his career, which has slowed down recently but has stretched for six decades.
Hammond never considered himself a songwriter, although he has penned a handful of originals. But for the majority of his 35 albums, he sought out and reproduced blues and roots material originally conceived by a wide variety of sources. Those range from Tom Waits (Hammond’s 2001 album of Waits’ songs is a catalog highlight) to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and dozens of others.
Although he has led bands– some of which included a pre-fame Jimi Hendrix and members of The Band– Hammond usually tours solo; just a few acoustic guitars, harmonica and his guttural, rubbery vocals.
That’s how we find him for the 45 songs (only a few are repeated) on this two-night stand. They range from a crackling opening of Wolf’s “Wang Dang Doodle” to the closing Chick Willis ballad “It’s Too Late, She’s Gone,” the latter best known from Derek and the Dominos’ version. In-between we get a graduate course in classic blues, straddling Chicago, Texas, Piedmont, and Delta styles, including six potent Robert Johnson cuts (Hammond once recorded an entire album dedicated to the blues legend).
Unlike the British blues invasion of the late 60s/early 70s where acts such as Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, Ten Year’s After and of course the Rolling Stones also recreated and popularized these once obscure American blues musicians by plugging in and rocking out, Hammond went the other direction. He stripped these songs down to their core using just acoustic guitar and harmonica. In some cases like Berry’s “No Money Down,” Hammond’s cover is even rawer than the original.
It’s a wonderful listen, not just for riveting performances on tunes like John Lee Hooker’s suggestive, double entendre “Ride ‘Til I Die,” the New Orleans/Professor Longhair standard “Junko Partner,” and a frantic take on Wolf’s “Shake for Me,” but because Stanley captures the sound from the small 150 capacity venue with such clarity, it seems like Hammond is in the room with us.
Far from an afterthought, is the mammoth, comprehensive booklet which includes newly penned tributes from longtime Hammond fans Waits (he once opened for him) who says “He can sound like an oncoming train or…like he is drinking champagne on that train”, Jorma Kaukonen, and others. These notes also serve as a reasonable history of country blues, as well as describing Hammond’s extensive timeline and details of these performances.
‘You’re Doin’ Fine’ is a near perfect package highlighted by Hammond’s exhaustive, energized and, well, encyclopedic approach to music that never feels dated or stale, especially in the hands of a master like him.
John Hammond website
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