Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint is a reissue label that tends to devote itself to issuing high-quality single-artist career anthologies, rare albums, and various overviews of segments in British popular music circa 1965-1974.
Crawling Up a Hill: A Journey Through the British Blues Boom 1966-71, asserts that the U.K. explosion ran concurrently with the country's emergent psych and garage scenes. That's true, but it was less formal and more primal. It derived its inspiration from pre- and post-war American bluesmen including
Robert Johnson,
Howlin' Wolf,
Elmore James, and
Muddy Waters, as well as from the dying British jump R&B scene established by
Alexis Korner,
Graham Bond,
Long John Baldry,
Cyril Davies, etc.
John Mayall was getting his Bluesbreakers with
Eric Clapton to the charts as well,
Duster Bennet was hanging around with
Peter Green, and artists such as
Jo-Ann Kelly, Mike Cooper, and Ian A. Anderson were reveling in country blues.
While there have been many British blues anthologies, the vast majority tend to be single-label projects rather than scene-wide curatorial efforts. This three-disc, 56-track box is the first attempt at a comprehensive overview. On disc one, the Bluesbreakers are represented by
Willie Dixon's and
Otis Rush's steamy, raw, "All Your Love." The previously unissued title track is offered by with sass and verve by then-new and always unheralded Zany Woodruff Organization (who later hosted guitarist
Allan Holdsworth). Tracks by
Bond,
Jeff Beck,
Love Sculpture, and early
Fleetwood Mac,
Ten Years After, and
the Deviants round it out. But there are surprises:
Duster Bennett's demo for "Jumping at Shadows," made immortal by
Fleetwood Mac, and
the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band delivering a scorching, humorous, barroom strutter called "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?" There is a smoldering
Korner jam here too, titled "Operator," with a very young
Robert Plant on vocals. Disc two contains a smoking acoustic version of "Death Letter Blues" by Mike Cooper, as well as "It's You I Miss," by
the Christine Perfect Band (aka
Fleetwood Mac's
Christine McVie), the swampy, modal blues-rock of Levee Camp Moan on "I Just Can't Keep from Crying,"
Taste's "Blister on the Moon," revealing
Rory Gallagher's early guitar genius, and tracks by
Blodwyn Pig and
Chicken Shack, as well as a host of obscurities including Quiet Melon's rarity "Diamond Joe," featuring the pre-Faces Ronnie Wood, Kenny Jones,
Rod Stewart,
Ian McLagan, and
Ronnie Lane. The final disc includes a scorching, live, "A Hard Way to Go" by
Savoy Brown (with
Chris Youlden),
Stone the Crows' "Raining in Your Heart," the
Edgar Broughton Band's "Old Gopher,"
Skid Row's "The Man Who Never Was," an early example of dual-lead proto-metal blues with guitarist
Gary Moore (
Phil Lynott was their original vocalist, but not here), and
Status Quo's early boogie exercise "Railroad," with obscure numbers by
Linda Hoyle (a rousing "Mr. Backlash"), a ragged "Road Runner" by
Stack Waddy, and a rare live take of "I'm a Man," by the pre-pop
Yardbirds. The set is adorned with copious, authoritative liner notes by compilation producer David Wells, and contains wonderful photos and brilliant sound.
Crawling Up a Hill is essentially the definitive British blues compilation. Its amazing cross-licensing and skillful presentation leave very little out, yet covers all major and most minor artists on the scene with careful attention paid to stylistic variation. ~ Thom Jurek