Blues from the Apple

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Blues from the Apple
LP cover-Blues from the Apple.jpeg
Live album by
Charles Walker and the New York City Blues Band
Released1974
RecordedApril 1973 – May 1974
Genre Urban blues
Label Oblivion Records
Producer Honest Tom Pomposello & Fred Seibert

Blues from the Apple, released in 1974 by Oblivion Records, is the only album under the leadership of guitarist and vocalist Charles Walker. [1] Featured players include New York City based musicians Lee Roy Little (piano & vocals), Bill Dicey (harmonica), 'Foxy' Ann Yancey (electric guitar), Larry Johnson (harmonica), Tom Pomposello (bass guitar), Bobby King (rigged snare drum), and Ola Mae Dixon (drums), among others. [2]

Contents

The recording of this album began in March 1973 when contemporary country blues musician Larry Johnson was interviewed on Tom Pomposello's WKCR-FM Saturday blues program "Something Inside Me." He introduced Tom—and New York radio listeners—to his friend Charles Walker, and they played a spontaneous acoustic duet. Pomposello sensed a window on a rare breed and immediately made plans to produce an entire album showcasing the New York blues community. [3]

Recording

Producers Pomposello and Fred Seibert held over one dozen sessions between April 1973 and May 1974 at Columbia University's WKCR-FM radio in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan, New York.

Recording was done live to stereo two track Scully recorders, using Shure, AKG Acoustics, and Georg Neumann microphones, through a custom designed radio recording board. Editing was done manually in Pomposello's living room on a Teac Corporation "prosumer" stereo machine, and at WKCR.

The final edited 2-track tapes were sequenced by Pomposello and Seibert, then re-recorded with slight equalization and echo added by Kevin Behrman at Echo Sound Studio, a now defunct recording studio in Levittown, New York. LP mastering and pressing were done at Wakefield Pressing, Phoenix, Arizona. [3]

Release

Blues from the Apple was released in late 1974. It was the least successful album in Oblivion's short history. Even blues speciality publications ignored the record, in part, speculated the label's owners, because of the incongruous mix of New York City and blues. The album went out of print after its first pressing of 1000 copies. [3]

Currently, there are free MP3s of the LP at the official Oblivion Records archive blog, and downloads and streaming are available at iTunes, MOG (online music), Rhapsody (online music service), Spotify, and Amazon.com, among others.

Release formats:

Packaging, album cover, and labelss

On the 1st (and only) pressing of 1000 copies the cover sleeve consisted of very thick cardboard outer sleeve and the 12" vinyl record was protected with a white paper album liner printed with lyrics.

The cover illustration (of an electric guitar playing Statue of Liberty standing on an eaten apple core) and design was by Frank Olinsky, [4] soon to be one of the designers of the MTV logo, [5] and a major label album designer for bands that included The Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. [6] Photographs are credited to Christine Pomposello, Tom Pomposello, Roy Langbord, John Dunn and Fred Seibert, graphics to "The Oblivionettes" (Seibert) [7] Both sides of the LP labels were printed in the same brown and blue [8] picked up from the album cover.

Sleeve notes

The liner notes were credited to Oblivion partner Dick Pennington, though the Oblivion blog attributes most of the actual research and writing to producer Pomposello. [2]

Track listing

LP Side one

  1. Scratch My Back - 3:23 (J.Moore aka Slim Harpo)
  2. Black Cat Bone - 2:36 (Lee Roy Little)
  3. Gladly - 2:40 (Charles Walker)
  4. Decoration - 3:10 (Sonny Boy Williamson)
  5. I'm A Good Man But A Poor Man - 2:18 (Cecil Gant/Lee Roy Little)
  6. Juice Head Woman - 4:09 (Eddie Vinson/L. Zito)

LP Side two

  1. Bluebird’s Blues (Medley) a. Bluebird b. Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Poor Me c. Your Evil Thoughts d. Hurry Baby, Please Come Home - 7:23 (Lee Roy Little)
  2. Fast, Fast, Women and A Slow Race Horse - 3:43 (Charles Walker/Sonny Moore)
  3. It's Changin' Time - 4:32 (Ann Yancey/Bill Dicey)
  4. Meeting You - 5:40 (Charles Walker)

Personnel

All personnel information taken from the Blues from the Apple liner notes unless otherwise noted. [2]

Release history

RegionDateLabelFormatCatalogue
United States Summer 1974 Oblivion Records Stereo LP

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References

  1. "Scams and Flim Flams", Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com
  2. 1 2 3 Liner notes, Blues from the Apple, Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com
  3. 1 2 3 Recording Blues from the Apple, Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com
  4. Frank Olinsky & The Blues, Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com
  5. MTV Logo Story, Frankolinsky.com
  6. "Frank Olinsky". Frankolinsky.com. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  7. Design in Oblivion, Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com
  8. Record labels, Oblivionrecords.tumblr.com
  9. Blues from the Big Apple. Living Blues Magazine #18 Autumn 1974, Scribd.com

Sources