Elmore James - Shake Your Moneymaker: The Best of the Fire Sessions
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Elmore JamesEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2001-03-20
Music Label: Buddha
Soundtracks:
- Shake Your Moneymaker
- Look On YOnder Wall
- The Sky Is Crying
- Rollin' And Tumblin'
- Held My Baby Last Night
- I'm Worried
- Done Somebody Wrong
- Fine Little Mama
- Anna Lee
- Stranger Blues
- Something Inside Me
- Early One Morning
- Sunnyland
- Standing At The Crossroads
- My Bleeding Heart
- Dust My Broom
Free Music Notes for Shake Your Moneymaker: The Best of the Fire Sessions
Free Music Review: Five stars - with reservations
Hit: 5 Stars
Why the reservations?
Well, this collection only focuses on Elmore James' recordings for Bobby Robinson in the early 60s. He did remake many of his early hits for Robinson's Fire, Fury and Enjoy labels, and often in even better versions, but a few early-50s classics are missing, so "Shake Your Moneymaker" doesn't really work as a definitive Elmore James-compilation.
But let's forget about what's not here for a moment, and look at what is:
"Shake Your Moneymaker: The Best Of The Fire Sessions" gathers sixteen songs from the "King Of The Slide Guitar" box set, perfectly showcasing Elmore James' incredibly intense, slide guitar-driven electric blues. James was equally at home playing a smouldering slow blues like "The Sky Is Crying", and laying down raw, rollicking numbers like "Look On Yonder Wall" and his magnificent, fiery take on Robert Johnson's "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom". He always sang like he meant it, and he possessed a huge, emotional wail of a voice, imbuing everything from slow numbers and mid-tempo grinds to up-tempo ravers with passion and power.
The track selection is not 100% perfect, but it's very good, and several of these songs rank among the very best of electric Chicago blues, right up there with the greatest of Muddy Waters' and Howlin' Wolf's songs: "Shake Your Moneymaker", "Sunnyland", "Dust My Broom", "The Sky Is Crying", "Standing At The Crossroads", and a great rendition of Robert Nighthawk's "Anna Lee". ("It Hurts Me Too" is missing, though, which is a crime.)
"The Sky Is Crying: The History Of Elmore James" from Rhino Records remains the ultimate Elmore James-collection, featuring 21 songs and spanning his entire career, but this is a very good overview of his superb Fire, Fury and Enjoy recordings. Just remember that if you opt for this one, you need "The Best Of Elmore James - The Early Years" from Ace Records as well. That terrific 28-track compilation is the best place to go for all of James' gritty early-50s classics for the Meteor, Modern and Flair labels.
Shake Your Moneymaker: The Best of the Fire Sessions Poster
Classic is a word tossed around so frequently and carelessly these days it's hard to recall the time when it accurately described truly stellar songs. Well, this compilation of 16 sides by Chicago slide-guitar master Elmore James, recorded in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York City between 1959 and 1961, includes real, honest-to-god classics such as "The Sky Is Crying," "Done Somebody Wrong," "Shake Your Moneymaker," and "Look Up Yonder Wall." James's grainy vocals and stinging guitar powerfully express pain and regret. His recording studio band, Broomdusters, sometimes with the great drummer Belton Evans present, reveals emphatic feeling in a supporting role. Only "My Bleeding Heart," sullied by noisome horns and a general sluggishness, and "Something Inside Me," on which an unidentified sax player wears out his welcome fast, fail the test of time. --Frank-John HadleyBlues Music CDs
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