Robert Nighthawk - Bricks in My Pillow
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Robert NighthawkEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-09-22
Music Label: Delmark
Soundtracks:
- Crying Won't Help You
- Take It Easy, Baby
- Seventy-Four
- Maggie Campbell (Alternate)
- The Moon Is Rising
- Nighthawk Boogie
- Kansas City
- You Missed A Good Man
- Bricks In My Pillow
- Seventy-Four (Alternate)
- U/S Boogie
- Feel So Bad
- Maggie Campbell
- The Moon Is Rising (Incomplete)
Free Music Notes for Bricks in My Pillow
Free Music Review: Great to have the United and States masters available again [updated, originally reviewed in 1999]
Hit: 5 Stars
In a flurry of recent releases a clearer picture of Night Hawk's artistry is emerging (he himself spelled his name as two words). This disc re-releases the recordings made by Night Hawk in 1951 for the United label and in 1952 for its subsidiary, States. It adds two takes that were not on the original LP release of 1977 (Pearl 11). Highlights include "The Moon is Rising" and "Maggie Campbell," which are interesting to hear in different versions here. With this disc, two recent Testament discs that include Night Hawk material ("Down Home Slide" and "Down Home Harp," both of which include performances that are a bit stilted--they were probably bootlegged from the May 1964 blues festival at Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago which had blues artists performing in an auditorium before a polite audience unused to the blues), and, most important, the new "And This Is Maxwell Street" 2CD set from P-Vine in Japan PCD 5527/28 (and let us hope soon on a U.S. label!), we begin to see that Night Hawk was a far more versatile guitarist than many probably have realized. On the "Bricks In My Pillow" release reviewed here, the pace is usually fast. The disc has a rather different feel from the lush but mournful playing we know from Chess recordings such as Anna Lee. Perhaps most interesting of all, however, is the extraordinary range of styles Night Hawk plays on the P-Vine "And This Is Maxwell Street" discs, but perhaps that should not be surprising given Night Hawk's remarks in the interview with Michael Bloomfield that was made in conjuction with the filming of Mike Shea's Maxwell Street documentary "And This is Free." There he mentions that he used to play swing, Spanish numbers, popular numbers.... The P-Vine discs release all of the recordings made for "And This Is Free." It is great to have the United and States masters available again here on this disc. Recommended. Just wish I knew who the drummer in the cover photo was! [Reviewer's update: I have confirmed that the drummer is Jimmy Lee Collins, the same drummer that appears in "And This is Free." "And This is Maxwell Street" was released on Rooster Records (US) and Katfish Records (UK) after this review was written.]
Bricks in My Pillow Poster
Juke joints were the preferred domain of this legendary bluesman, not recording studios. So these 1951-52 United sessions recorded in Chicago are precious, indeed; his slide guitar sears Take It Easy Baby; Nighthawk Boogie; Feel So Bad; The Moon Is Rising; Kansas City; Seventy-Four , and more!Something of a missing link between Delta and Chicago blues, Robert Nighthawk never garnered as much attention as his followers, who included Earl Hooker and Muddy Waters. That's a shame, partly rectified by this reissue from Delmark Records, though the guitarist's rambling way of life meant that his sessions were few and far between. That makes the material on this collection all the more precious; the tracks on Bricks in My Pillow include some of the best slide guitar ever recorded. Listen to Nighthawk's guitar wailing on "Crying Won't Help You" or" The Moon Is Rising" (two takes, one previously unissued, are included here), coupled with a rich, resonant voice that sounds equally at home on ballads and uptempo rockers. Though Nighthawk's name isn't often uttered in the same sentence as those of other blues greats, it indubitably should be. --Genevieve Williams
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